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Amid Covid-19 pandemic, mental health helpline launched by Mumbai civic body gets 16K calls
The mental health helpline number, launched in April by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has received 16,703 calls from the city from April to September, with anxiety over socio-economic issues topping the list.
Backed by Aditya Birla Education Trust, the toll-free helpline M-Power —1800-120-820050 – has been receiving almost 100 calls a day in the past six months. Currently, it receives around 35 calls per day from Mumbai. Most of these calls are regarding anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, adjustment issues and relationship issues, among others.
Mental health experts said the lockdown has left thousands of people jobless, women being pressured to get married, couples with adjustment issues after staying with their spouses 24x7, additional pressure at work and students concerned about their future.
Ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, Dilshad Khurana, head counsellor of the helpline told HT, “We get most calls from those in the age group of 26 to 40. Their main concern is job loss and adjustment issues with families and spouses in the lockdown.”
Almost 70% callers are men and 30% women. The helpline gets the highest number of calls between 3pm and 8pm. Unlike earlier, the concern about the Covid-19 infection has decreased among people. “Till May, we used to get a large number of panicking callers who were scared of the virus. If their neighbour or relative got infected, they would get worried. People used to believe false forwards on social media. Now, as people are more informed, we have stopped getting such callers,” she said.
In April, the helpline received 11,932, which dropped to 1,879 calls in May, 971 in June, 671 in July and 600 in August. In September, the number rose a little to 650. “When the helpline was launched, we were receiving calls from people seeking ration or beds. Many of the calls weren’t related to mental health, so the number was higher initially,” she added.
“People are tired of staying at home. Also, the negative and fake news circulated on social media worsens the mental health. Many young people are taking out their anger through bad behaviour at home, which further increases the tension at home,” said Dr Sagar Mundada, a city-based psychiatrist.
In recent times, the helpline has started getting more calls regarding domestic violence. “We provide initial distress counselling before referring them to police,” said Khurana.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday laid emphasis on the need to invest more towards mental health. “Spending 2% of the national health budgets on mental health is not enough. International sponsors also need to do more. Mental health still receives less than 1% of international aid earmarked for health,” read a recent study conducted by WHO across 130 countries, including India.