HCL Foundation, the Corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of HCL Technologies, multinational information technology services and consulting company headquartered in Noida, have launched mental health helpline in Madurai to support the students in distress and in need of any psychosocial support, in a much more streamlined and an effective manner.

HCL Foundation is supporting the Happy Schooling Project, which is being implemented in Madurai among the 24 Corporation run schools since 2017-18.

The project has helped in building a strong teacher student bond and has created a conducive and happy environment for students. It is being technically supported by NIMHANS, Bangalore and detailed curriculum has been set on mental health literacy. With the support of Madurai Corporation, the project is now launching a helpline which would support the students in distress and in need of any psychosocial support, in a much more streamlined and an effective manner.

The project has reached out to 11,253 students and more than 250 teachers in the last three years.

More than 50 teachers have been identified, along with the school heads, who will be trained through a six-day intensive training program for providing psychosocial support and to develop the competencies in providing counselling to the students in need. The training with further help them understand the use of the available referral network.

A four-tier mental health literacy session is conducted with the Heads of the schools; Teachers; Parents and the Students themselves, to exclusively focus on the Mental wellbeing of the students.