What are key innovations in mental health transforming India’s wellness industry

India’s wellness industry is undergoing transformative growth with groundbreaking innovations in mental health support that are making a notable impact nationwide. These key innovations are emerging across social, therapeutic/psychological, medical, and technological domains, each playing a role in improving mental health outcomes and accessibility.

Social innovation

Parents recognise the need for therapy in early childhood

More parents are acknowledging the importance of early intervention, and seeking therapy to address developmental and emotional needs in children in the Indian context. This early awareness helps to foster emotional resilience and mental health awareness from a young age. This had not been a regular practice in the past due to a lack of awareness and stigma associated with seeking psychological assistance.

It’s crucial that parents accept the difficulties their child is facing in school life, personal habits, friendships, or other areas of their life. Some therapies used for children include family therapy, play therapy, CBT, and expressive art therapy.

Parents now focus on wanting their children to have good self-esteem and greater self-confidence therefore, they can be seen encouraging their children to seek therapy. A survey conducted in 2023 revealed that 82% of young Indians believe their parents would be supportive if they needed therapy to cope with mental health challenges. This reflects a growing openness among Indian parents to mental health treatment, especially for their children.

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Community building

In the past few years, the conversation about mental health has taken off and is getting traction in all circles of society. As a result of this, people are more curious now than ever about knowing various mental health topics and getting to know more about their lingo. Due to these reasons, there are more conversations on the topic among people be it with friends and families or at the workplace. As a result, there is more awareness and people are taking their mental health more seriously as well as taking charge of their health, taking therapy, and building support for themselves and their loved ones.

In the recent past, many mental health communities have arisen be it online or offline, where people are encouraged to talk about their struggles and challenges. These communities have come up to be one of the pivotal points in the mental health communities as they provide much-needed social support to people and facilitate and boost their healing journey. People come together and help each other to seek help, find therapists who suit their demands, also share stories and talk about their struggles.

Businesses are covering mental health for employees

Employers across India are prioritising mental health by offering Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), wellness workshops, and access to mental health counsellors as well as resources. These initiatives reduce stigma in the workplace and address issues like work-related stress and burnout, fostering healthier, more supportive work environments.

Software and hardware-based innovation

Digital platforms

Virtual therapy platforms and mental health apps are increasing accessibility to mental health care, especially for those reluctant to pursue in-person sessions. These platforms provide convenient, private, and affordable options, with many incorporating features like immediate support through helplines and chatbots, making mental health care more approachable and flexible.

Meditations based on popular types of music such as House music, or EDM

In India, many individuals enjoy meditative music from the genres of House, EDM, Binaural Beats, and 432 Hz frequencies as they fuse generations-old principles with modern-day rhythms. Going further, such clips are also created by Indian creators on popular platforms like YouTube and Instagram to emphasise the methods of deep focus concentration and relaxation.

The pieces fuse well with electronic music or calming frequencies with more traditional types of quieting meditation techniques including pranayama and yoga. People also use them for falling asleep and for relaxation purposes. As the country's stress graph rises, the pressure on digital content makers to capture the market rises as well. The emerging trend provides a new perspective to the young urban audience in which digital mindfulness is practical in the bustle of the age.

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Wearable technology

Wearable devices like Muse are a great example of how modern technology can be fused with the existing techniques used for medical purposes and create a new and effective method for psychological monitoring. Muse is a wearable device that contains an EEG mechanism that provides auditory feedback on a real-time basis. It uses EEG brain sensors and can detect changes in brain waves. This auditory feedback can be used to help focus one's attention and even has applications in various other disorders.

AI recognition of patterns and changes in tone to detect stress and anxiety:

Psychological distress is directly connected to physical body-related illnesses such as auto-immune diseases, metabolic syndrome, sleep disorders, and suicidal thoughts. AI or ML (machine learning) is now focusing on many areas of biomedicine such as diagnosis, monitoring, and prognosis of disease. Stress is a common mental health concern that is subjective thus it is often not noticed.

The traditional methods of assessments are dependent on self-report which can be unreliable. To precisely identify stress levels, AI algorithms are combined with behavioural and physiological data collection. Machine learning techniques (such as neural networks and pattern recognition) are used to analyse data from a variety of sources, including activity monitoring devices, voice modulation, facial identification, and heart rate monitors.

AI and ML have both been able to predict stress and can differentiate between normal states and abnormal states (as observed in PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) with an accuracy of 90%. AI interacts with humans through its sensor technology and wearable technology like wristwatches that can detect stress levels of the individual and can even detect heart rate, and other physiological systems. AI-powered devices and apps are made to manage stress, anxiety, and depression and even to prevent suicidal risk. To conclude, to reduce workplace stress, AI plays a significant role in real-time and accurate stress regulation using chatbots, virtual therapists, biofeedback systems, wristwatches, and smartphones.

Therapeutic innovations

• Mindfulness-based Therapies (MBT): A form of psychotherapy that uses meditation, yoga, and attention to physical experience. There are several types of MBT but the most commonly used are mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT): Focuses on behavioural psychotherapy which aims to identify and reduce problem behaviours in distressing emotions while accepting the thoughts as they are.

• Solution-focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): This type of therapy focuses more on solutions rather than the problems and their causes, they are short-term and collaborative in nature.

• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR): This therapy is designed specifically to be used with trauma and related disorders, it makes use of the eye and brain connection and the movement they make while remembering past memories and trauma, and replacing the negative experience related to it with more positive ones. 

Medical innovation

• Neurological surgeries: In the modern world a number of neurological methods have been created which help not only monitor but also improve the mental health of an individual. They are recommended only in certain cases in which medications and therapy are no longer working on the causal factors situated in the brain. They are used in cases of severe mental health disorders and clinical depression when individuals are not responding to other forms of treatment.

• Psychosurgery is a collaborative effort between a neurologist and psychiatrist that involves removing/destroying a part of the brain, The most common types are cingulotomy, limbic leucotomy, sub caudate tractomy.

• Neuromodulation surgery is a stimulation procedure that involves placing an implant/device in the brain to stimulate and activate certain parts of the brain to modulate the neural network, like vagus nerve stimulation.

• Deep Brain stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure that uses electrical stimulation to treat various neurological and psychiatric conditions, it involves placing two different devices in the body—a receiver in the brain and an activator in the chest.

• Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a non-invasive procedure that makes use of magnets that are placed around the brain to create a changing magnetic field thus leading to the induction of an electric charge at specific points of the brain. It is widely known for curing depression.

Social media-based innovation

Curated mental health content on social media is also playing a crucial role in raising awareness, reducing stigma, and providing information on mental health support options. A huge amount of content is created to engage with the audience which may help them calm down and feel relaxed.

Many social media handles and profiles are educating more and more people about the importance of mental health. They cover a wide variety of topics around mental health as well which can make people feel like they are not alone in their pain. A lot of psychologists offer advice on how to deal with conflict resolution and deal with work-related stressors which are quite engaging because of the method of storytelling and information sharing.

30-45 seconds, of Instagram reels and shorts which are dedicated to relaxation and breathing exercises, are extremely helpful and are on the rise.

(Manun Thakur is Founder of Veda Wellness.)