Mind Your Head: Mental Health during COVID – MSAI India

Name of the activity: Mind Your Head: Mental Health during COVID

Country/NMO: MSAI India

Program: Ethics and Human Rights in Health

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Rights of patients, doctors and medical students, Peace, peacebuilding and health

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)

Problem statement:

Throughout the pandemic, many people across the country have experienced job or income loss, death of close ones, which has generally affected their mental health. Several individuals described they felt the strain on their mental well-being because of quarantine and isolation.

Target groups:

• General population

Beneficiaries:

• General population

Objectives:

1. To sensitize 100 people of the general population about the exacerbation of stress and anxiety along with other mental illnesses due to the COVID pandemic in a 20-30 minutes awareness session in a time frame of 1.5 months.
2. To educate 100 people about the various underlying causes leading to deteriorating mental healthduring the pandemic in the 20-30 minutes awareness session 
3. To equip 100 people with ways to de-stress, improve and maintain their mental health and that of their family members in the 20-30 minutes awareness session
4. To provide 100 people with verified resources to seek professional help for any mental illness faced by them or their family members in the 20-30 minutes awareness session.

Indicators of Success:

General Indicators

– Number of online events= 20

– Target population reached= 100

Specific Indicators

1. At least 60% of the target population became aware about the exacerbation of stress and anxiety along with other mental illnesses due to the COVID pandemic.
2. At least 60% of the target population became aware about the various underlying causes or issues which are leading to deteriorating mental health during the pandemic 
3. At least 60% of the target population understood the ways to de-stress, improve and maintain their mental health
4. At least 60% of the target population became aware of verified resources to seek professional help for any mental illness.

Methodology:

1. A comprehensive toolkit outlining the goals and methodology of the activity was developed by the National Team. 
2. For the activity a group of enthusiastic volunteers are collected. 
3. The target population was identified and gathered on an online platform. Organisers ensured that minimum (12) and the maximum (25) criterias were fulfilled.
4. Pre-event questionnaire is filled by each participant prior to the discussion.
5. An interactive 20-30 minutes discussion is then held on the exacerbation of stress and anxiety along with other mental illnesses due to the COVID pandemic, the underlying causes and ways to improve and maintain one’s mental health and that of their family members during these trying times. A list of verified resources providing mental health services are provided at the end of the discussion
6. At the end, the post event questionnaires are filled by the participants.
7. Post event report is filled by the organiser which is then evaluated by the National Team

Plans for evaluation:

1. QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION: Obtaining the data of the responses of the pre and the post event questionnaires and statistically correlating the results with the success indicators and objectives to measure the impact.
2. QUALITATIVE EVALUATION: Feedback by the target audience (through post event questionnaires) and volunteer satisfaction (through post event forms)
3. Event summaries and photographs

External collaborations:

none