IIIT-Bhubaneswar Student Creates App To Address Mental Health Issues

 Bhubaneswar: At a time when mental health awareness is growing day-by-day amid the ongoing pandemic, people battling such situations often hunt for simpler and non-intrusive methods to manage themselves better. With a lot of stigma attached to mental health issues, they, however, choose to keep matters confidential and in the process alienate themselves from their surroundings.

That’s what a second-year student of IIIT-Bhubaneswar from Kashmir’s Sopore district, Musaib Altaf, realised while writing a book on anxiety disorders. Such was the impact of this realisation that the teenager—who is a student of computer science—created a free-of-cost portal and app titled, ‘Your Friendd’ to help people suffering from mental health issues.

The app—which is also available on playstore—connects people requiring help for mental health issues to clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. “We gather the inputs from the user regarding their mental health issues using the portal. Every day, we receive at least one or two queries,” said Altaf, who is also the author of the book ‘A walk out of anxiety.’

“When I was writing this book, I realised that the mental health patients hesitate to share their problems with their doctors or friends and family as they don’t want to be labelled as addicts. In Kashmir, the problem of drug addiction is increasing,” he added. Altaf had launched the app while he was in his first year last August.

The teenager insisted that the lockdown had exaggerated mental health issues. Thus, it was the most appropriate time to build a platform to address such issues with confidentiality. Altaf has collaborated with three clinical psychologists and at least six psychiatrists for helping people through his portal and app.

 The portal also offers an option to submit the problems without having disclosed one’s identity. “The portal is user-friendly. It resembles any other social media platform,” he added. So far, the portal has catered to at least 60 to 70 people, mainly from Kashmir.

Altaf was motivated to launch the app after witnessing the condition of his friend, who was once the second topper of his school. “My friend was battling mental health issues because of relationship failures. He couldn’t speak about the same to his parents. Gradually, he turned into a drug addict and couldn’t pass the higher secondary examination. This prompted me to launch a platform that could help people like my friend,” said Altaf.