ABP Ideas Of India | Mental Health Issues Are Real, Awareness Should Start At School Level: Neerja Birla

ABP Ideas Of India, Day 2: Neerja Birla, the founder and chairperson of Aditya Birla Education Trust, talks about 'Learning to speak up: Breaking the silence'. 

Neerja Birla at ABP Ideas Of India Summit on March 26, 2022

ABP Ideas Of India: Neerja Birla, the founder and chairperson of Aditya Birla Education Trust, Saturday there has not been much talk on mental health, even today, due to the stigma attached to it, and that the situation was much worse earlier.

“Six years ago, when we started to work, it was less spoken about compared to today because stigma attached to it is deeply rooted,” Birla, who herself faced mental health issues in her life, told Gul Panag on the second day of ABP Network's Ideas of India Summit.

Panag was chairing the session on 'Learning to speak up: Breaking the silence'. 

“During our work, we realised that awareness about it was lacking. Also that when you are aware, the treatment was lacking. So we are trying to bridge that gap between awareness and making it more accessible,” Birla added.

She said when her  daughter Ananya was born, she became a victim of depression, and felt guilty about it. 

"I was not able to do anything for my daughter. Everyone in the family was upset. Then I read about mental health, about postpartum depression. If I had known earlier, I would have fought it already. Preparations should be made for this state in advance,” Birla said.

She said mental health complaints are also being seen in children, and therefore awareness should be increased from school level, and teachers can play an important role in this.

Ideas Of India | Neerja Birla, Founder Of Aditya Birla Trust Explains The Mental Health Curriculum @GulPanag @NeerjaBirla

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She also talked about how it can be tackled at the earlier stages of life.

“Mpower Mind mental health curriculum is the same as Maths Curriculum, History Curriculum which starts from an early age. It talks about what is a mental health issue. This makes it easy for the children to understand from the very beginning what is the problem and what should be the solution to it.” Birla said. 

She asked people to reach out to a therapist if there was a problem of mental health. "It has to be understood that people who achieve a lot in life have mental health problems as well.” 

Birla, who is working closely with the CISF (Central Industrial Security Forces), said if people want to talk on issues related to mental health, they can contact them. 

“You can get help on matters related to mental health issues by calling 180-120-820050. This is a very serious issue on which there is still a lack of awareness in the country and it is necessary to increase it,” she said. 

She also said that her work has found that a lot of men also face mental issues, but they don't talk about it. 

“We have 24*7 helpline. And we have received 80 percent calls from men talking about mental issues,” she revealed. 

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To assist in mental health concerns of citizens owing to the coronavirus pandemic, Mpower tied up with the Government of Maharashtra and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to launch a toll-free helpline number 1800-120-820050. The helpline is available 24x7.

After a year of successfully running the Mpower1on1 helpline, it was evident that there was a need for an even more private and accessible resource for seeking help. Mpower, therefore, launched a chat service to be available 24 x 7 for those who cannot find the privacy or courage to talk, or who prefer to type rather than talk.mpowerminds.com/chat is a chat-based helpline available 24x7.