Attending to all calls for help for a year

A 35-year-old man worried about being unable to see his wife and child for months due to lockdown restrictions; a 28-year-old woman locked in with her abusive father in her hometown where she is stuck after she lost her job during the pandemic; an 18-year-old student worried about the status of his exams in a crucial year

A 35-year-old man worried about being unable to see his wife and child for months due to lockdown restrictions; a 28-year-old woman locked in with her abusive father in her hometown where she is stuck after she lost her job during the pandemic; an 18-year-old student worried about the status of his exams in a crucial year. These and many other concerned callers have been flooding the helpline numbers for the past one year, in search of much needed help, and this is where free and public helpline numbers like iCall came to the rescue.

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“Ours is a unique helpline run by professionals and is free of cost. While iCall regularly addresses around 55-57 calls a day, post Covid and lockdown it’s almost double than usual. Soon, we realised that the existing helpline was not able to handle all calls as most were Covid-specific and needed immediate resource mobilisation,” said Dr Aparna Joshi, assistant professor and director, iCall.

Initiated in 2012 as part of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Field Action Project, iCall was put in place to fill up the vast vacuum that exists in the field of mental healthcare in the country. “Normally, 40-50% of our callers are repeat callers because we provide long-term support apart from initial support. But with Covid, most callers were those facing psychosocial concerns related to the pandemic and we realised the need for a separate helpline number catering solely to Covid affected people,” added Joshi.

Towards the end of March 2020, two new helpline numbers were introduced by iCall—one for general public wanting to share their Covid-related fears and concerns emanating from the lockdown, and the second catering to health and mental health professionals.

The first dedicated COVID helpline was supported by the Mariwala Health Foundation that supports iCall’s regular helpline too. Introduced in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the idea behind the second helpline, SWASTHI, for health and mental health professionals was to address concerns of people who were “providing services to others, but were getting completely burnt out as they were also affected by the same trauma that the clients were talking about”.

On an average, iCall would address anywhere between 5,000-8,000 calls a year, but between March 2020 and March 2021, the original helpline number addressed over 20,000 calls from across 29 states and union territories. The Covid-specific helpline number received 3,892 calls between April 17 and December 31, 2020. And apart from these, the helpline was also catering to people via emails and responded to nearly 1,500 emails every month last year.

“The Covid-specific helpline received maximum calls from the northern and western states and showed that a majority of calls came from the 21-30 age group. The nature of the calls ranged from practical concerns such as access to medicines, health facilities, food, etc to livelihood-related and mental health concerns,” said Joshi, adding the general helpline also received maximum calls with Covid-related anxiety, emotional distress calls, relationship concerns, academic and job-related concerns as well as suicidal ideations.

A report on the numbers recently appeared in the Journal of Social and Economic Development highlighted how in the first wave of the pandemic, most calls received by the helpline number were related to the fear of the pandemic, fuelled by low levels of awareness.

What made matters worse were constant exposure to media reports of rising number of cases and deaths, leaving individuals worried about their health and safety. Many callers also addressed the problem of a flailing health system which could not support those in need, whereas others highlighted the plight of job losses and the economic slowdown on the livelihoods of individuals which directly affected their mental well-being.

“One of the significant themes for which callers sought help from iCall regularly pertained to relationship conflicts, reported by individuals from different age groups including parent-child, intimate, married, long distance and peer relationships. Families, forced to stay together for extended periods, found it difficult to navigate through this enforced togetherness,” highlighted the report.

Stranded in the same household with parents, spouses and children led to newer triggers for conflicts. “There has been an increase in cases of family members complaining of lack of personal space as all members are home-bound, leading to higher stress and anxiety disorders among all age groups,” said clinical psychologist, Dr Seema Hingorrany. “In the past one year, more young couples are worried that they are headed towards divorce, whereas youngsters are witnessing domestic violence instances between their parents and this has left many scarred,” she said, adding that more therapists are now resorting to family therapy sessions for such cases.

Recently, iCall was recognised and listed as a mental health innovation by the Global Mental Health Innovation Network, giving the helpline workers the much-deserved recognition and accolades.

“iCall fills the huge treatment gap that exists in mental health services in the country, especially in covid times. Designed as a free, confidential, multilingual, telephone-based service by trained counsellors, it aligns with the core principle of the UN Sustainable Development Goals—‘leave no one behind’,” said professor Shalini Bharat, director, TISS. She added that as a community connected institute of higher learning, TISS remains committed to innovating services and programs for improving health and wellbeing of people. “The Global Mental Health Innovation Network Award to iCall is a huge reaffirmation of our conviction that educational institutes must remain socially relevant and use knowledge to find solutions to people’s problems.”