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Millennials love hanging out on the Internet, which is where this non-profit aims to start a conversation about mental health on college campuses. But the plan is also to take things offline
No parent sends a child to school or university expecting it to be the last time they see him or her. Yet, the Lok Sabha estimates that in 2016 alone, 9,474 students (a number which many believe is grossly underestimated) died in India due to ‘accidental deaths and suicides’, many of them triggered by poor performance in examinations.
This is not a problem exclusive to India. College campuses and other educational institutions across the world have invited criticism for not doing enough to address the mental health conditions that led to these suicides. Earlier this year in the US, a group of students filed a class action lawsuit against Stanford University for allegedly pressuring them to take a leave of absence when they reported suicidal feelings. The statistics are, however, even more alarming in India, where a 2010 study stated that suicide is the leading cause of death among 15-to-26 year-olds, particularly women.
Exams, peer pressure, the stress of landing a career, and even the pressure to get married: it is no surprise that young adults are one of the most vulnerable age groups when it comes to mental illness. “Symptoms for a majority of mental health issues crop up in early childhood,” shares Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder of SNEHA and co-author of a recently-published Lancet Report on suicide. “But since this age group is otherwise physically healthy, they don’t usually access health services.”
Some educators are beginning to address the urgency of the issue, recognising the importance of early action. USA’s National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states that 50% of individuals afflicted by a mental health issue experience onset by age 14. Just this July, New York became the first American state to make mental health education in its schools mandatory.
Virtual solace
It is this vulnerability that led Bhairavi Prakash, an organisational psychologist and mental health advocate, to begin her passion project that addresses the mental well-being of young adults, specifically college students. The Mithra Trust, her initiative which combines online activism with community engagement, will launch on World Mental Health day on October 10.
The website, Prakash says, will consist of “information that you can engage with” — articles, illustrations and videos targeted at three categories of individuals: those seeking help, those looking to help someone else, and those who are interested in spreading awareness about mental health issues. The organisation will also provide subsidised online counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) by trained professionals exclusively for college students. Mithra seeks to bring community engagement and dialogue to the fold of mental health, using a platform that millenials live on: the Internet.
The long-term vision of the non-profit is to ignite a democratic, grassroots conversation about mental health on college campuses. This is the reason why Mithra is building an army of ‘digital ambassadors’ or representatives from Indian universities who will be provided with regular online training on peer counselling and awareness building. “We train them to interact with somebody who might need help,” she shares, adding that Mithra will also provide social media tools to help students build offline campus clubs, making it a first-of-its-kind in India, emulating peer-counselling models such as Jack.org (Canada) and Headspace Australia. “It is much easier to get the students talking first,” she says, explaining her decision to engage directly with the youth, and not university administrations. “Some universities don’t believe that this subset matters.”
Mithra will draw from Prakash’s experience working with educational institutions such as IIT-Madras to establish and improve campus counselling centres and student-run clubs that provide peer-to-peer counselling services.
Truth matters
In India, which faces an 87% shortage of mental health professionals, and where systemic shaming is heaped on those seeking psychiatric help, access to information is hard to come by. This includes information about the resources that are available, and Mithra’s web content will engage the services of psychologists, writers and designers to produce easily-digestible information on the topic of mental health. The non-profit currently has funding from two foundations. “Just to get the ball rolling, but that’s not enough,” says Prakash.
For more details, contact bhairavi@mithratrust.com
