College graduates launch helpline support for mental well-being
While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not only struck the masses in terms of the physical consequences but has also taken a toll on everyone’s mental well-being. In order to support such people undergoing emotional trauma, a 22-year-old graduate started a support COVID mental health helpline for the vulnerable last year and has answered more than 20,000 calls.
Nikita Gupta was recently awarded with Young Women Leader in India Award.
“The helpline started operations in March 2020 and has continued so far. Our approach has been in twofold, one, focussed on scaling operations so more people can get access to mental health support in more languages and two, to create awareness about mental health through social media.
Our aim is to create more accessible mental healthcare solutions and build a robust solution seeking platform as mental health problems are extremely common,” said Nikita Gupta. Mental health is an extremely overlooked issue in India, that has considerably worsened over this period of pandemic. Already being a major contributor to the burden of illness in India, suicide deaths due to mental health issues attribute to atleast one-third among females and one-fourth of all males. Most of this illness and death goes unnoticed.