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Mental health as a topic is spoken about very often these days, which is a good point that we see, but how positively it is addressed is a very important aspect we shall choose to discuss. In multiple surveys, it has been evident that people in the metropolitan cities of India are very open to discussing these aspects and seeking help.

In a survey done by the Live Laugh Love Foundation with a sample size of approximately 3500 people from metropolitan areas, there has been a finding that shows a surge in the percentage of people seeking help from 54% in 2018 to 92% in 2021.

This shows a very different picture than what we are all experiencing in our day-to-day lives.

The above survey, with the said sample size and a few hypotheses of ours about the personas of people, takes us to 1% of the Indian population if we amplify it at the nation’s level. While, we take this as a baseline to benchmark the “importance of mental health awareness” in this article and speak about how one can thrive in such situations.

Reference: Livelovelaughfoundation

Let’s begin with being a devil’s advocate – Why is mental health not spoken about as deeply and in a meaningful & personalized way as any other healthcare issue?

There are a few broader reasons that we will discuss here and understand the validity. Here are few reasons that we have come across while speaking to a set of people in different settings on a personal level:

1. On the top of our list is stigma: There is a strong belief in Indian society that anyone who says anything that they are going through mentally is perceived with a strong negative notion and gives a person differentiated treatment. This mental health stigma is due to the lack of a conscious, thorough understanding and acceptance of psychological aspects of an individual’s growth. Also, understand how the community and social environment around you contribute to the stigma.
   • Mental health—”Mansik awsthya”—is not made part of basic learnings, teachings, and practices.
   • The tangible imbalances in one’s health are always prioritized and given the utmost importance.
2. Discrimination and differential behavior: When we speak to individuals, they say that they are afraid of being treated differently and discriminated against, keeping that individual’s background in mind. They lose opportunities on the personal and professional front that could have been given based on their skills and abilities but are not given now when the opportunity provider knows the background
3. Access to required mental health help: Quality, quantity, and affordability have been great concerns. Let’s understand these 3 aspects:
   • Quality: There is a lack of educational institutes that provide and make sure that the practitioners who go out in the country to serve are well equipped with knowledge, skills, and empathy. These, by default, say that there is a supply-demand mismatch.
   • Quantity: In a survey and analysis done in 2021, we found that against the requirement of ~25 million hours of mental health practitioner services available in India, against the need of ~7200 million hours. The need is ~288X greater than the availability of the services.
   • Affordability: The average cost of any sort of mental health help/treatment is a minimum of 2250 rupees per schedule. This, by default, is out of most people’s budgets, as we don’t have a set budget and insurance available to cover these costs.

Reference:

4. Rapid urbanization/westernization: With western influence being so fast, becoming the core part of an individual is impacting one’s mental wellbeing to a great extent. The culture, developments, and some practices that are being adopted in India are creating an imbalance  in one’s coping mechanisms, and that struggle affects mental health and stability.

The technological growth that brings the ease of accessing information also poses a danger of misinterpretation and misconception of things, which leads to indulging in practices that the masses are involved in without    consciously knowing if that works as a right fit for an individual.

The mental health issues in India have doubled in the last 3 decades for the reasons mentioned and there is no addressing mechanism.

Also, a recent survey says that due to the increasing pressure and stress of competitive examinations, the tendency for suicidal thoughts has gone up to 37%, suicidal plans to 11%, and attempts to 3.3%.
These numbers in themselves pose a great danger and a question: Are we equipping ourselves with the right practices to deal with such a powerful surge in losing our future nation drivers, as a country?

Reference: IJMR

With this overwhelming situation in India, where there are many problems, we miss recognizing that “we are the solution too.”

With Declutter, we are aiming to create a community at the grass-roots level. “Each one of us is a solution to someone,” of course, with a healthcare professional mentor who supervises closely and also, defines the right need for it.

I am sure if you’ve read so far , you are looking for a solution, and we will derive it now with your being part of a change.

The solution lies within ourselves, and that’s listed below as part of what Declutter does:

1. Speak, listen and share opinions freely in a supervised setting.
   • Sharing experiences, providing a speaking opportunity without judgment, and deriving a solution from it with healthcare intervention is the best way to go about it.
   • Sharing your problem to invite perspectives and opportunities to solve it as a group is also a way.
2. Be supportive of someone, and let someone be your support. Believe in people, and let others believe in you.
   • You don’t want to hurt anyone, and everyone has the same intention; believe in that so that you can get and give support.
   • Here also, we curate these conversations for a conclusive and solution-oriented approach.
3. Normalize having personalized, timely psychological assessments as normal as your blood tests.
   • Bring mental health to the same priority as your physical health.
   • Start anonymously with the Declutter environment and soon a propagator of the same. Be a torchbearer with us.
   • Let us, or any other mental health practitioner or an affiliate in your life, bring that growth along.
4. Allocate a budget for your mental health as part of your personal financing strategy.
   • Roti, Kapda, Makan, and “mental health”—make this a new norm where you have set a budget for your and your family’s care.
   • Utilize this budget to figure out your growth plans for yourself and let it act as insurance for your overall well-being.
5. If you are worried about your privacy, let us bring that to you in a secure environment.
   • Take a step, connect with us, and believe in our cause as we do it for our & your lives and for our nation’s health.
   • We are bound by our ethics and code of conduct as an organization.
6. You want constant support from a mental health professional. Let Declutter bring that to you while we maintain your healthcare history, visible only to you and us.
   • We will have your side across all parts of wellness, driving evidence based growth for your mental health, physical health, and social health.
7. Be a benefactor of the cause that we are running and a contributor too.

Strong mental health awareness, acceptance, and practice make tough steps easier with time. As time passes, we will grow stronger with a strong sense of community, a constant eye on high productivity, and long lasting psychological growth as individuals and as a nation.