Mental Health Helpline Kiran Launched - RajRAS

On 07^th September 2020, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri Thaawar chand Gehlot launched a 24×7 Toll-Free Mental Health Rehabilitation Helpline “KIRAN” (1800-500-0019) to provide relief and support to persons with Mental Illness. Shri Gehlot also released the poster, brochure and resource book on the Mental Health Helpline Kiran.

Objectives of Kiran Helpline:

The objectives of the Helpline are:

Early Screening; First Aid;
Psychological support;
Distress management;
Mental well-being;
Preventing deviant behaviors;
Psychological crisis management and
Referral to mental health experts.

Salient Features of Kiran Helpline

The Kiran Helpline will offer mental health rehabilitation services with the objective of early screening, first-aid, psychological support, distress management, mental wellbeing, promoting positive behaviours, psychological crisis management etc.
It aims at serving people experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, adjustment disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, pandemic induced psychological issues & mental health emergencies.
This Toll Free Helpline will be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the Technical Coordination of BSNL. 25 Institutions including 8 National Institutes are involved in this Helpline.
It is backed by 660 Clinical / Rehabilitation Psychologists and 668 Psychiatrists.
It will function as a lifeline to provide 1^st stage advice, counselling and reference in 13 languages.
The 13 languages covered in the Helpline are: Hindi, Assamese, Tamil, Marathi, Odia, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Bengali, Urdu and English.

Working of the Kiran Helpline

The Helpline operates in this way:

Dial Toll- Free number 1800-599-0019 from any mobile or land line of any telecom network from any part of India.
After welcome message, select language by pressing correct button;
After the language selection, Select State/UT,
You will get connected to the Helpline Centre of native or desired state, Mental health expert will help to resolve the issue or refer/connect to external help (Clinical Psychologist/ Rehabilitation Psychologist/ Psychiatrist).