India’s first asynchronous text-based app for mental healthcare, Mimblu, has recently launched ‘Mimblu At Work.’ This new feature offers enterprises and organisations tailor-made mental health plans and will help companies to monitor, motivate and enable better stress management mechanisms in the workplace. 

42.5% of the Indian private sector employees deal with anxiety or depression. Currently, the aid for this prevailing epidemic is largely restricted to Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Unfortunately, these EAPs cannot provide a proper spectrum of behavioural wellness care – which is why the average usage of EAPs is around 3-5%. However, ‘Mimblu At Work’ attempts to fill this void by focusing on creating a data pool of issues employees face at the workplace and putting diverse employee well-being interventions in place. The program further aims to be helpful by countering various concerns like lack of career motivation, decreased productivity and anxiety.

Mimblu was founded by Yash Malhotra and Psychologist Shevantika Nanda with the belief that mental health support should be accessible to all. Pioneering text-based therapy in the country, the start-up aims to resolve the problem of the short supply of only 0.8 therapists for every 100,000 people. The format of Mimblu proves to connect more clients to a therapist, bridging the gap between demand and supply in the mental healthcare space. And its ‘Mimblu at Work’ program is a step further in that direction.

Yash Malhotra, Founder & CEO of Mimblu mentioned, “Clinical studies prove that the format of therapy that Mimblu uses, asynchronous text-based therapy, helps employees in the workplace reduce levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Which in turn reduces work impairment by 40% and relevant absenteeism at work by 50%. With Mimblu At Work, we aim to help individuals feel better and, in turn, be able to do better at their workplaces and make more of an impact at their organisations. Currently, we’re piloting with a few companies in stealth and have received a number of requests to be a part of the program.”

Shevantika Nanda, Co-founder & COO of Mimblu added, “Roughly 56 million Indians suffer from depression, and 38 million suffer from some anxiety disorder. India has one of the highest prevalences of mental illnesses globally. The National Mental Health Survey 2016 found that close to 14 per cent of India’s population required active mental health interventions. The same survey found that nearly 80% of the individuals struggling with mental health challenges did not receive the required intervention or treatment. Post-pandemic, these numbers are likely to be much larger. Workplaces can become the missing piece of the puzzle and help get mental health support to more individuals.

Previous research has suggested that better mental health support can significantly improve productivity. The economic burden of mental health struggles is vast, and Mimblu at Work allows us to improve productivity as well as overall mental health.”

After over a year of incubation, Mimblu launched in January of 2022 and now has over 400 active users. Furthermore, the app’s Mimblu At Work program aims to serve as a vital help at a crucial time when the importance of mental health is gaining attention by the day and entering mainstream conversations at workplaces.