Amit had a well-paying job, no financial or family troubles, but he wasn’t happy. Thinking it was his job, he decided to take a sabbatical and moved back to India. In the first three months, a feeling of hopelessness, failure and worthlessness gripped him. He felt worse than he did while he was abroad. He decided to start his own business venture, which failed. That is when he started to get therapy online at ePsyClinic. Nayamat worked on Amit’s faulty beliefs about himself, the negative self-image and helped restructure his thought patterns He now is back doing what he does best -investment banking with the same zeal and enthusiasm.
A few months ago, Delhi-based neighbourhood app NearGroup introduced a ‘chat anonymously through Facebook Messenger’ feature. In the first month itself, 21,000 people had tried it, many of them using this anonymity to seek advice on mental or sexual health issues. Prashant Pittie, CEO, NearGroup said that the popularity of the feature has prompted him to formalise it, and soon, the app will add a specific ‘chat anonymously with a counsellor’ option.
“While the regular chat feature is free, the counsellor option is chargeable. People want to be able to say things without being judged“, he said. It’s this emotion, and the taboo related to mental and sexual health matters in India that has resulted in a sharp spike in the number of startups that are trying to provide this service online.
When Shipra Dawra started EPsyClinic in May 2015, the platform was doing three consultations a month. Now it is 200 a day. “When we started, there was a lot of stigma around mental health issues. Today, people are more open to talking about things“, she said.
A large part of the challenge is that unlike other web-based services, which are basically making it easier to fulfil an existing need, companies like this need to first create awareness about the importance of seeking help and counselling and work through the stigma associated with it in India.
Convenience is another big factor. Set up in February of 2016, Type a Thought has already done 15,000 consultations, and Founder Dr Ajay Phadke largely attributes this to the convenience of accessing the counsellor. “We offer the option of text, phone and video counselling and 80% of the people prefer the text option. Anonymity is one reason, but also the fact that psychologists are available for 16 hours a day and so the person can chat when he/she has the time“, he said.
The other big reason is the woefully low numbers of mental health professionals in India, especially outside the metros. Phadke said that they had a lot of customers from towns like Jalandhar and Ludhiana where even if a person was willing to seek out help, finding it was difficult.
Richa Singh, Co-Founder, YourDOST, which actively markets itself to people in the 18-35 age bracket, said, “With our current lifestyles and the family support-system changing, young people are even more stressed and need someone to talk to. Since we launched in December 2014, we’ve served 6.5 lakh people and do about 1,000 sessions daily“, she said.
Source: The Economic Times