Deepika at the launch of 'Live Love Laugh' foundation [VIDEO Pg 6, 7] - Page 3

OCTOBER 10, 2015

On the Mental Health Day, Deepika Padukone's The Live Love Laugh Foundation, has partnered with SocialCops a data startup to create a national database of mental healthcare professionals in India. Commenting on the same, Anna Chandy, Chairperson Trustee of The Live Love Laugh Foundation said that over a period of time they expect this database to be one of the most comprehensive databases in the country for mental healthcare professionals.

Through this database one can discreetly find help or look for a therapist in their neighbourhood. This is enabled via a simple searchable interface and map. So once the individual keys in his or her requirement as per their location, the map will get get populated with therapists around them.

A form has been integrated to the map so that citizens and mental health professionals can add therapists to the map, after which they will go through a vetting process before being added to the database.

"If you see the numbers, they're actually quite scary, close to 100,000 people in India have committed suicide due to mental illnesses, since 2001. There are some studies that even claim that India has the highest depression rate in the world. And yet we only spend close to 0.6 per cent of its healthcare budget on mental healthcare," says Prukalpa Sankar, Co-founder, SocialCops.

With this collaboration both The Live Love Laugh Foundation and Social cops aims to make it easier for people who are seeking help. In most cases, Prukalpa adds that with the stigma associated with mental health and illnesses, people do not openly speak about what they're facing.

She adds that to top it there isn't any comprehensive database that helps people find psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and therapists exists today. "This is what we are looking to change," adds Prukalpa. India has one psychiatrist for every 343,000 people. In comparison, US have one psychiatrist for every 12,837 people.

The physical, services and social infrastructure of India's mental healthcare sector is going through a lot of challenges. There aren't enough mental health hospitals and practitioners.

While SocialCops has gathered and collated their database of mental health professionals, they believe that they've a long way to go. Prukalpa adds that they've started a crowdsourcing of adding different therapists, psychologists and other mental healthcare professionals to be added to their database. These professionals will nevertheless go through a screening process to ensure authenticity.

"There's minuscule data for anything related to mental health. We even need to track where our mentally ill are, what we need to do to help them cope, how do we reduce the number of cases that cause suicides. The number of issues we can address is all encompassing. Data is definitely one of the ways to address these issues," adds Prukalpa.

For a country of 1.2 billion people, there are only 4,500 psychiatrists, most of who are based out of Metro and Tier II cities. There are only a few social entrepreneurs who are doing yeomen services in the field. However, we are yet to see their models being replicated to create a far-reaching impact.

This is compounded by the existence of deep-rooted social stigma and other social issues attached to mental health. As a result, according to one study, only 50 per cent of the serious mental health problems and 10% of the common mental health problems come up for treatment.

http://yourstory.com/2015/10/socialcops/

Deepika Padukone launches her new venture

At an event in Mumbai, which was teeming with industrialists and the elite and a few members of the film fraternity, Deepika Padukone made the most of the objectives of World Mental Health Day and launched her foundation, The Live Love Laugh Foundation, which works to help people in depression, as well as the people around them.

Talking about her journey through depression, which she openly spoke about for the first time earlier this year, Deepika not only highlighted the perils of the mental issue but also her want to help people who were going through the same, which she as a social influence and a public figure felt responsible to do. She was also joined on the panel by designer Sabyasachi Mukherji, who has also battled depression in the past. Among the audience members were filmmaker and producer Kiran Rao, producer Ronnnie Screwvala, writer Shobhaa De and industrialist couple Parmeshwar and Adi Godrej, along with Deepika's parents, Ujjala and Prakash Padukone.

Moreover, the foundation was launched by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, who not only spoke about the troubles of the farmers in the Vidarbha region but also urged Deepika and her foundation to engage and collaborate with them to find effective solutions to their mental health issues.

A brave and large hearted move on Deepika's part, let's hope the foundation is able to help as many people as possible.

http://www.filmfare.com/news/deepika-padukone-launches-her-new-venture-10791.html