Apt & app support for mental health is just at hand

All is not gloom and doom as tech-enabled mental health support is on the rise with apps and platforms bridging the patient-provider accessibility, Smitha Murthy writes

Ankit Malhotra

Anshul Kamath

Prachi Vaish

Richa Singh 

It’s estimated that about 56 million Indians live with depression. Another 38 million live with an anxiety disorder. India has some of the highest rates of suicide in the world. The National Health Survey in 2016 found that about 14% of India’s population needs ‘active’ mental health interventions.

Yet, there are only about 0.75 psychiatrists for 1,00,000 people. The stigma around mental health remains high, and the costs of undergoing treatment or therapy prohibit many from reaching out for help.

India may be on the cusp of another epidemic. This time, a mental health one. But is it all gloom and doom, though? Tech-enabled mental health support is on the rise, with apps and platforms such as Evolve, Wysa, Heyy, YourDOST, ePsyClinic, Mindhouse, and Trijog all leading the way in bridging the patient-provider accessibility gap.

YourDOST was one of the pioneers in this space, having, over the years, created diverse programmes and initiatives such as a maternity programme, a founder’s programme, and even a programme to support laid-off employees. “Indian society is slowly opening up to topics like day-to-day stress, anxiety, and a number of other potential threats to an individual’s overall wellbeing. As the first platform in the space of holistic emotional wellness, we have come a long way from stigmas and myths to embracing healthier discussions, and that’s a major win,” says Richa Singh, the co-founder.

Evolve, one of the few mental health apps that also focuses on the needs of the LGBTQ+ community was founded by Anshul Kamath in 2019. Before that, Kamath facilitated mental wellness workshops across India to gain firsthand experience in creating a safe environment for people to be vulnerable.

“When I looked at existing mental health apps, I felt a lot more could be done with building effective virtual products, combining a lot of the principles I had learned and observed in an offline setting,” explains Anshul.

“Most other apps tend to have a very generic approach to dealing with stress or anxiety. We’re one of the few mental health apps with a problem-first approach. For example, if someone is anxious because of body image issues versus going through a break, we have contextualised content and sessions that focus on the actual problem. This allows for a much more effective and relatable experience.”

Evolve has over 2,50,000 users globally and recently received Rs 3 crore in funding from Fund Strategic Holdings. Apps weren’t around much, though, when Prachi Vaish, a psychotherapist, started online therapy back in 2009 with India’s first psychological services portal called HopeNetwork! Now a veteran with more than 17 years of experience, and the co-founder of the Emotional Wellness Initiatives, Prachi believes that online therapy can be as successful as in-person therapy. And what about apps?

“Chatbots and “self-work” apps are great as adjunct aids to the process of healing but cannot replace the guidance and clinical judgement/acumen of an actual professional,” she says. Not that Prachi is averse to technology as Emotional Wellness Initiatives, too, uses technology to aid the mental health process. “We have seamlessly woven technology to ease the experience of our clients without compromising on the human experience.” The platform was started in 2020 with a small collective of curated, qualified therapists. This human experience is what Ankit Malhotra, the founder of Heyy, focuses on.

“Heyy was the outcome of my own journey back in 2019. My career was on a nose dive, and I had just shifted to Singapore. The pressure of settling with my family in a new place, coupled with the workplace instability, really struck me hard. I don’t think any self-care app could have assisted me then. I got myself a coach and really saw the power of conversations and empathetic listening that helped me manage myself and grow from the experience. It was this experience that I channelled into building the platform from day 1,” explains Ankit.

Heyy has what it calls Helpers on the app who create safe, anonymous spaces for users and self-help Mini-Guides to provide safe, credible, research-based content.

Heyy has already crossed 50,000 app downloads since its launch in 2020, and Ankit says that 40% of its users come from Tier 2 cities — an often underserved segment. This growth is why YourDOST’s Richa Singh believes tech will continue to play a role in mental health.

“Tech will surely continue to uplift the accessibility and play a great role in facilitating such human-led counselling experiences or community spaces,” she avers. This tech-driven approach explains why Indian mental health and wellness startups received the decade’s highest investment last year. As Ankit says,” if you create the right platform, people who need help will break the stigma and the barriers that exist and come forward to take help.”