At least 65 corporates participated in a mental health pledge touching over 7.5 million followers on World Mental Health Day (October 10). Some noted companies such as IPSOS, Mudrex, Artech Infosystems, and Neuron Energy, among others, participated in the #PledgeForMentalHealth to support their employees, said an official statement from the Aditya Birla Education Trust Friday.
Mpower, a mental health social enterprise, and Aditya Birla World Academy – both part of the Aditya Birla Education Trust – spearheaded a series of unique activities aimed at spreading awareness about the growing mental health crisis in the country. Among the many initiatives, the two most prominent mental health awareness initiatives were #PledgeForMentalHealth by Mpower and ‘The Happy Place’ by the Aditya Birla World Academy.
The #PledgeForMentalHealth was a virtual initiative that urged corporates in India to create awareness about mental health and pledge to implement one mental-health-friendly policy at their respective workplaces.
‘The Happy Place’ was ‘India’s first student-led mental health festival’ that took place on October 7 and 8 with an aim to create awareness about mental health among school-going children around the theme of ‘Resilience’ through various competitive activities such as dance, music, street plays, poetry, videography, and photography.
“Mpower continues to bolster its 24×7 helpline which was launched in 2020 along with the support of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). To date, the helpline has received over 99,452 calls and touched millions of lives by creating access to mental health counselling through its various services. The toll-free multilingual 24×7 free helpline number is 1800-120-820050,” Dr Neerja Birla, founder and chairperson of Mpower, said adding that “mental health is one of the most important issues of our generation and there is a silent crisis that is engulfing millions of people across the country.”
“Together, with our #PledgeForMentalHealth, The Happy Place – a student-led mental health festival – organised by ABWA in association with Mpower and with a focus on therapies and unspoken issues such as Emotional Abuse, we want to ensure mental health is spoken openly and help is sort more readily, by eliminating the stigma associated with mental health,” she added.
