The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) celebrated two years of Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking across States (Tele MANAS) on World Mental Health Day, here on Thursday.The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is ‘It is time to prioritise Mental Health at Workplace’.

On the occasion, Aradhana Patnaik, Additional Secretary of MoHFW and Managing Director, National Health Mission (NHM) launched the Tele MANAS app and Tele MANAS video call facility, in the presence of Roderico H. Ofrin, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to India and other dignitaries.

Tele MANAS app is a comprehensive mobile platform that has been developed for providing support for mental health issues. It has a library of information including tips on self-care, recognizing distress signals, managing early signs of stress, anxiety, and emotional struggles. It facilitates engagement of the user through mind challenges, games and mindfulness practices providing a user-friendly experience. The app will help users connect for free and get confidential mental health support through trained mental health professionals across India, 24×7 for immediate counseling.

Video consultations in Tele MANAS is another upgrade to the already existing audio calling facility. This will be undertaken by the mental health professionals who are taking audio call escalations to get further information about the caller as part of history taking and clarification. This can also enable a brief physical examination or a Mental State Examination (MSE) for the caller to confirm any findings. This facility will be initially launched in Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu and later scaled up to the whole country.

In her inaugural address, Patnaik said, “Mental health is fundamental to health and plays a crucial role in enabling individuals, families and communities to function at their highest level, work productively and contribute to society. Unhealthy work environments and other unfavorable working conditions have an impact on one’s general health, well-being, mental health, and involvement or productivity at work.”

She said there is a need for creating a good work environment and work-life balance for more productive results in the workplace, adding that Tele MANAS has reached a significant milestone, having handled over 14.5 lakh calls since its launch. Underlining the importance of adolescent mental health and issues faced by the adolescent population, she stressed on the need for Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) to ensure awareness about the Tele MANAS App.

Talking about mental health in the workplace, H. Ofrin said that issues like gender inequity, disrespectful unsupportive colleagues, lack of work-life balance, and job satisfaction lead to mental health challenges for the employees in the workplace.He emphasised the responsibility of employers and managers to create a supportive work environment.

Congratulating the Ministry for two years with the successful implementation of Tele-MANAS, Ofrin said, “WHO review of Tele-MANAS has shown a successful model for mental health. It has the potential to work well. The primary healthcare especially the Ayushmann Arogya Mandirs have proven to be successful in improving mental health and well-being of the people”.