Since its inception in October last year, Tele MANAS, the government-run national tele-mental health helpline, has recorded the highest number of calls seeking help for sleep orders. Of the nearly three lakh calls received so far, over 34,000 were made for sleep disturbance. Calls seeking help for sadness, stress, and anxiety came next.
Of the total 2,98,940 calls received at the national 24/7 helpline as of Tuesday (September 12), as many as 34,139 callers sought help for sleep disturbance. While 32,239 calls received were for seeking help for sadness, 28,000 calls were stress-related. Overall, 44% of the three lakh calls were made by female callers.
To provide affordable access to quality mental health care through tele-services under the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), the Centre launched the Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele MANAS) initiative on October 10, 2022. NIMHANS is the national Apex Coordinating Centre, and the International Institute of Information Technology (IIITB) in Bengaluru is the technology partner for this helpline.
