If you’re troubled, there’s help online
WITH World Hypertension Day tomorrow, Mumbaikars are turning to the internet to seek help for emotional and mental health problems. HealthEminds (www.healtheminds.com), a Bangalore-based website that offers confidential therapy via online real-time face to face video sessions to people undergoing emotional and mental problems has 1200 people from the city calling every month.

Ankita Puri, Co-founder of HealthEminds says, “We have 40 experts from across India who offers their expertise in various fields. People mostly seek help with respect to depression, marriage counselling, addictions, stress and anxiety. The sessions are for 45 minutes to an hour.”

Precluding taboo and lack of time as an excuse, this innovative platform sees more than 200 calls per day from across India. With ‘It’s good to ask for help’ as its tagline, this portal is a lifesaver for those in need of a listening ear. Technology for a good cause, helping to make the city mentally healthy, gets a thumbs up from us.

Landmark day for LGBT community
IT MAY be hard to believe, but it was only in 1990 that homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders by the General Assembly of the World Health Organization. This marked the beginning of the end of medical homophobia —and was a step forward in the acceptance of alternative sexualities. That decision is commemorated on May 17 as the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. We look forward to all discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people ending soon!