Kathmandu, Jan. 21 -- Dr Nabin Lekhak was going about his day at Patan Hospital's outpatient psychiatry department when he got a phone call. The person on the other end told Lekhak that he didn't want to live anymore and was about to kill himself. But Lekhak had been trained to handle such situations and he knew that he needed to keep the person talking.

"He told me that he was frustrated since he wasn't living the life that he had expected," Lekhak recalled in a conversation with the Post. "I realised that he was severely depressed so I tried to explore options that would orient the conversation towards aborting his suicidal thoughts."

After talking for 20 minutes, the caller agreed to seek medical treatment. The immediate crisis has b...