Mental health wellness platform Wysa has revealed plans for a Hindi language mental health app, which will also be accessible through WhatsApp.
Wysa’s English mental health app has served approximately 528,000 people in India, primarily through large multinational employers and direct-to-consumer downloads.
However, the firm said the lack of Hindi language support remained a barrier in reaching diverse socio-economic groups and demographics.
ACT, a non-profit venture philanthropy platform, is supporting the initiative and is seeking a partner to help provide funding to get the project moving. A pilot is expected to commence in early 2023.
The first iteration of the Hindi app will guide users through cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) exercises via text with a mobile phone-based conversational agent, to help users manage depression and anxiety.
It will guide users who show moderate to severe symptoms towards a clinical program and wellness tools to other users.
Neetha Joy, director – healthcare at ACT, said it was the first time it had tackled a joint venture such as this.
“With 14% of our population suffering from mental health disorders and the pandemic exacerbating the lack of access to quality care, we need innovative solutions to address this chasm as there aren’t enough trained care providers to meet this latent demand,” she said.
Jo Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder at Wysa, added: “In our ambition to help 50 million users by 2025, we must go beyond the barriers of literacy and language to create access to mental health support for all.
“We’ve shown that therapy through Wysa appeals to those who are unwilling to come forward to talk about their mental health problems. We have a long way to go in overcoming mental health stigma in India, but with this Hindi version of our universally popular app, delivered through Whatsapp, is a great place to start.”
