Kerala Law Academy
2020-10-10 10:00 - 2026-09-22 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, India
An interactive session on Mental Health Literacy was conducted at Kerala Law Academy. The welcome address to the session was given by Prof Hareendran K, The principal of Kerala Law Academy. An interactive session on “Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Literacies for Mental Health and Wellbeing” was conducted by Prof. Raghavan for law students and faculty members of Kerala Law Academy. This session covered topics such as what is meant by mental health and how it is different from mental illness, the mental health status of Kerala and what can be done to improve it, what mental health literacy is and how building resilience can help improve mental health. Two short films, the Recipe, and the Verdict by MeHeLP India foundation were also presented to help participants to understand the stigma around mental health and the difficulties faced by people with psychiatric illness, caregivers, and professionals in the field of mental health. Participants were given an opportunity to discuss and express their views.
Launch of The MeHeLP Handbook: A guide to Mental Health
This was followed by the launch of the MeHeLP India foundation handbook by Prof Raghu Raghavan, Prof Hareendran K, Prof Anilkumar K, Arun V Unnithan and Dr. Dakshina Saraswathy. Prizes for the winners of the essay writing competition conducted for the students at Kerala Law Academy on the topic “How do You Construct Mental Health and Well-Being in Yourself? How Can We Address the Problem of Mental Health Stigma from a Social Justice Perspective in Kerala?” was distributed by Prof. Raghavan. The winners were Nandan GK, Meenakshy V S, K.S.Gokulkrishna, Hasna Haleel and Gouri CV. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr Arun V Unnithan. All the participants were given the handbook and MeHeLP brochures at the end of the session.

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Session at Mannam Memorial Residential Higher Secondary School
2020-10-10 13:30 - 2026-10-10 14:30 | Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram., Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram, India
Prof Raghavan conducted an interactive session with high school and higher secondary school students of Mannam Memorial School on Mental Health Literacy. Students were encouraged to contribute and express their views on topics around mental health and well-being. A misconception that mental health and the absence of mental illness were the same was expressed by a student while another student said that mental health could be understood as a person’s mental state, which includes their thought and behaviour. A girl on being asked what mental health is said. “a person’s mental health is determined by his mental state, which includes how they think and how they behave”. According to a boy “A person with good mental health is one who is able to overcome the mental difficulties they face and take important decisions in their life.” This boy later expressed his opinion on how we should behave towards people with poor mental health, he said “Some of us experience poor mental health and these may be problems like ADHD in children and PTSD for adults. We should not abuse such people as it negatively affects people with poor mental health and also people who abuse them. Rather we must be empathetic and supportive towards them in their recovery”. At the end of this discussion, the handbook and brochures were distributed to the students and teachers.

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Essay Competition
2022-09-22 - 2026-09-22 | Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, India
MEHELP ESSAY COMPETITION
Winners of Essay Competition
Announcing the winners of the school essay writing competition. We organized an essay writing competition in English and Malayalam for students from class eight to class twelve [high school and higher secondary school] in Kerala on the theme “How do Children and Teenagers in Kerala Construct Mental Health and Wellbeing?” The jury had shortlisted five essays for the award, and the winners were announced through our social media pages by Prof. Raghu Raghavan. The winners were Riya Thahaniya J, Fathima Habva Maliyekkal, Ann Mariya Mathew, Afreen C N and Hadif Ahmed V P.

Handbook Launch
2022-10-10 - 2026-09-22 | Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, India
Launch of The MeHeLP Handbook: A guide to Mental Health
The launch of the MeHeLP India foundation handbook was done by Prof Raghu Raghavan, Prof Hareendran K, Prof Anilkumar K, Arun V Unnithan and Dr. Dakshina Saraswathy at Kerala Law Academy Law college on World Mental Health Day, 2022 (10.October 2022).

Session for school students at Sreenarayana Vidyapeetam
2022-10-13 - 2026-09-22 | Thrippunithura, Ernakulam, Thrippunithura, Ernakulam, India
An interactive session on “Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Literacies for Mental Health & Wellbeing” for school students at Sreenarayana Vidyapeetam. This included playing the short films the Recipe and the Verdict. Discussions with students generated a few talking points. One student said that mental health means having emotional stability when they said, “mental health means having emotional stability”. A Students said that “unlike other illnesses a person having a mental illness is constantly mocked and there is stigma [around mental illness] in the society.” Students were aware of the misinformation that exists in Keralan society as quoted by a student “Today in our Kerala still mental health misconceptions exist. Everyone should be awarded about mental health. Including students’ other members of society.” Another student commented on society at large when they said, “Today we the society is avoiding people with mental health issues so providing mental health awareness classes it can be reduced and as like any other human people with mental health issues will be seen as same.” A student also gave suggestions to improve the mental health of students of the state when she said “Students and children should get family time. Every child should communicate with their parents and everyone in the family. Everyone in a family should sit and talk at least once in a day. If we are able to communicate properly with our parents so many things in life will be sorted.” Handbooks and brochures were distributed to the students.

A session for students and teachers at Sree Sarada Vidyalaya
2022-10-14 12:00 - 2026-09-22 14:45 | Kalady, Ernakulam, Kalady, Ernakulam, India
Two separate sessions were organised for the students and teachers on “Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Literacies for Mental Health & Wellbeing” which was followed by the distribution of the handbook and brochure.
Students’ discussion was mainly facilitated by the short films and most of the discussion revolved around these themes. One of the students said, “that the viewpoint of society needs to change about mental health conditions”. Another student highlighted the importance of family time and how having open conversations with their parents can enhance their mental health. The student said that “conversation can help solve many problems one faces.” During the vote of thanks Dr Deepa Chandran, Principal of the school talked about resilience. In her vote of thanks, she said to her students “You must bring up yourself to be a strong individual, you should have in your character resilience, to come back to the position. There are challenges, there are things that will be challenging you always ……………. [to overcome this] always think you should be growing up with a strong personality, a positive personality, looking at solutions to a problem

During the discussion with the teachers’ many concerns about both them and their students’ mental health emerged. A teacher said there was “a lack of awareness about mental health and people having mental health difficulties are reluctant to seek help and acknowledge that one has problems.” A male teacher said that “when men share their mental health concerns it may lead to problems within the family, and this is especially the case for married men.” A teacher said that “mental health is the ability to think positively” while another teacher said, “its ability to behave and react according to the situation”. Alluding to the situation in Kerala a teacher said, “physical illness is acceptable but mental illness is considered stigma” staying on this topic she said, “when they find out a student has disability and tell this to their parents, 99 per cent don’t accept this and says their child has no disability …… they are unwilling to even go for assessment”.
Teachers also find it difficult to tell students what is right and wrong. A teacher asked “when she used to be a student parents and teachers gave them proper guidance on what right and wrong were and they used to discipline them when appropriate, this had made our generation mentally strong. But in today’s generation, the risk of having a mental illness is very high for both teachers and students. Moreover, teachers of the present generation have no right to say NO to their students when they see something wrong and is that a reason students these days have more mental health problems?” Adding on to this another teacher later said “the inability to say no to their students is the problem the teaching community face these days”
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A session for students and teachers at Sree Narayana Higher Secondary School
2022-10-19 10:30 - 2026-10-19 12:45 | Vadakara, Kozhikode, Vadakara, Kozhikode, India
Two separate interactive sessions on Mental health literacy were done for students and teachers at Sree Narayana Higher Secondary School, Vadakara. The students’ session was on “Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Literacies for Mental Health & Wellbeing”. These discussions covered topics like “mental health, the stigma around mental health, mental health literacy and how to build resilience”. Short films, The Recipe and The Verdict were also played during the session.
Students discussed topics like mental health, stigma, and the importance of mental health. Mental health was explained by a boy as the “ability to face challenges in life” and by another girl as the “ability to control ones feeling”. According to one student “We feel that it [mental health problems] is something to be kept private and is something not to be shared with others” which shows the stigma still present in Kerala. After watching the short films, a girl felt that “mental health is as important, and it must be considered as any other illness”. Another student said, “we must support people with mental distress rather than discriminating against them.”
Teachers on being asked what is meant by mental health gave various explanations. One teacher said, “it is the well-being of the mind”, others used words like “awareness”, “happiness”, and “peace” to explain mental health. Like the students, a teacher felt that people with mental distress are not supported by their families. Some teachers also gave strategies to improve their mental health. These were “taking everything as it is”, having “positive thinking”, and keeping a “Take it easy” attitude.
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Session at Kannasa Mission School
2022-11-10 10:15 - 2026-09-22 12:15 | Peyad, Thiruvananthapuram, Peyad, Thiruvananthapuram, India
An interactive session with high school and Higher Secondary students of Kannasa Mission School was conducted by Prof. Raghavan, on the topic “Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Literacies for Mental Health & Wellbeing”. This session covered topics discussed at Law academy but adapted so that school students can understand them. Three short films, the Recipe, the Verdict and The Destination were played for the students.
There was active participation by the students. A boy said that mental health is the “Well-being of the mind”. A girl said “We don’t speak much about depression” alluding to the fact there is limited conversation about topics around mental health. A couple of students drew comparisons between mental and physical illness which were mostly misconceptions, one student felt that physical illness is treatable while this is not the case with mental illness, she said “physical health can be changed by medicine while mental health cannot be changed by medicine”. Another student felt that physical illness happens from within [biological], which is not the case for mental illness. These misunderstandings were cleared in the session through discussion. The short films also generated discussion on mental health and the stigma around it. They talked about misconceptions about mental health and the need to eradicate them. Students also commented about the social stigma around mental health after watching the film. A boy after seeing the Verdict said, “the belief in society about mental illness is such that by supporting people with mental illness people tend to avoid them”. To this, a girl added, “A person having a mental illness is normally avoided, instead we need to support them”. Another girl said, “these short films helped her understand the difference between mental health and mental illness”. At the end of this discussion, the handbook and brochures were distributed to the students and teachers.

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Session at Digital University of Kerala
2022-12-10 - 2026-09-22
An interactive session on “Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Literacies for Mental Health & Wellbeing” for the faculties and students at DUK was concluded by the distribution of the MeHeLP brochure and handbook to the participant. The welcome address was given by Ms Sabitha Rani. A student said, “wellbeing of a person is how we think and behave and when a person is depressed [or other has other mental health condition] they do not have optimum mental health.” Dr Malu G delivered the vote of thanks. After this session, a discussion for the development of an app in future for promoting mental Health Literacy was done with Dr Elizabeth Sherly and Dr Malu G, faculties at the Digital University of Kerala.

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