Reality of Emotional Support Services in India

In recent years, it has been found that there is a drastic shift from the conventional idea of the counselling setup that was being provided. According to the conventional idea, counselling is something that takes place in a physical space, face to face; however, with the advancement in technology, the physical form of counselling is changing into a digital form. The mental health care providers are now adapting to the digital transformation, and nowadays counselling is being provided through a variety of unique and innovative mediums like email, chats, video calls, and voice calls etc.

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Online counselling came into existence in the 1990s through the establishment of the International Society for Mental Health online. However, the popularity of online counselling has increased significantly in recent years in comparison to earlier times. And if we see that there is no doubt that the increase in the popularity of online counselling is due to the advantages that it holds, it includes:

• Anonymity: a person can anonymously share their issues with a mental health professional without the fear of revealing their identity. As some people may feel shameful and embarrassed about sharing their problems, even with a professional and this can be due to the stigma and misconceptions related to mental health that prevail in our Indian society.
• Accessibility: Online services, when compared to physical mental health services, are more easily accessible to the people.
• Affordability: If we compare the cost of physical and online mental health services that are available for us then we can easily see the difference in the cost. In online services there are various platforms that provide various services at a very minimal or no cost charge.
• Convenience: Online mental health services are much more convenient innature then the physical one as they can be easily accessed through anywhere anyplace at any time.

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According to research by the WHO in India, there are only 0.07 psychologists and 0.03 psychiatrists for every 1,00,000 persons population. And in India alone, nearly 150 million people are in need of mental health assistance. These stats in themselves are very alarming, and they need immediate attention. And due to this unavailability of mental health workers, a mental health treatment gap is being created between the seeker and the worker.

Some research studies suggest that online platforms for mental health services are equivalent to physical platforms (kumar et al., 2017). As the accessibility of stable internet increased, the number of smartphone users have also increased, which, on the other hand, have increased the demand for online mental health platforms. People who are not able to travel or people who are suffering from various health problems, and they can’t travel much outside their home, for them this online platform serves as a great advantage (Powell, 1998).

Then it is also been found that some people find it easy to share their personal information in online platforms more comfortable then in physical mode in front of a mental health worker, a feeling of shame and embarrassment is developed inside them which then obstructs them from sharing their information with the person in front (Fifgled, 1999) (Wellman, 1997).

Even with so many advantages, online counselling also suffers from many disadvantages, like cybersecurity, encryption, underqualified counsellors, lack of authenticity, online fraud, and technological glitches. Then there is the absence of various verbal and non-verbal cues in online counselling platforms, which acts as an intervention in effective mental health intervention and assessment.

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According to a study, the most common mental health problems that are being reported in online mental health platforms are related to mood disorders, adjustment disorders, relationship tensions, anxiety disorders, separation, etc( Maheu & Gordon, 2000 ). Online counselling is being provided through various forms like emotional support groups, peer groups intervention, online helplines, text-based support services, video call and voice call services and web-based and smartphone-based apps that provide mental health services.

In over 60 countries, telephone crisis helplines are working that are helping in suicide intervention and prevention. However, there is not much research being done yet on up to the services of online mental health platforms differ from physical ones. According to a 2015 report of WHO, out of the 15000 apps that were providing health-related services 29% were providing services that were related to mental health.

Now, if we look over the case of India, there are various socio-economic factors that indirectly or directly affect in design of the mental health scenario in the mind of the Indians. In India, various mental health helplines are available. But if we look at them closely, we would find that nearly half of them are not working actively. There is not a single compiled database that contains information related to all the helplines that provide emotional support and the organisations that provide emotional support to people.

The helpline numbers that are active in India are either providing pseudo-counselling or they lack authenticity, and then there are social media platforms running in which the people working are school students who are providing counselling to others, which is fully unacceptable and inauthentic in nature. There are various organisations in India that are working in providing emotional support to people through various ways like psycho educative workshops, text based platforms, online counselling and peer counselling and also direct people to seek professional mental health guidance.

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Some of these organisations are “you’re Wonderful Project”, “YourDost”, “Mindpeers”, “Sangath” and “Baatein Ankaheesi”, etc. These organisations are working to remove the stigma and taboo related to mental health, which is present inside society. Then there are various helpline numbers that are working across India and also addressing foreign callers. Some of these helplines are working 247 throughout the week, whereas some are working on some days for a definite period of time. These include “Fortis 247”, “Connecting Trust Suicide Helpine”, “ Sangath Helpline”, Suicide Prevention Helpline” and “Parivarthan”, etc.

In the end, we can conclude that in India, there is much taboo and stereotypes are present when it comes to mental health issues, problems and talks, and there is very little effort done to address and challenge these misconceptions. And due to this, people who are suffering from any mental health difficulty find it difficult to share their problems with others, as sharing them can backfire on them and increase their problems.

And this has led to the popularisation of web-based counselling services so much in recent years in India. However, even though some of these platforms charge very minimal to no cost for their services but their authenticity always remains in question, and very little efforts are made in examining the claims that these platforms make to people.