About

Mental Health Support Foundation was registered as a not-for-profit NGO (Non-Government Organization) in July 2022. However, its journey began many years prior to that. It traces its roots to probably India’s first peer led peer support community, BipolarIndia, established in May 2013. BipolarIndia was founded by Vijay Nallawala and was inspired by his own struggles with and recovery from bipolar disorder.

Moving beyond Bipolar Disorder, the organisation offers support to persons with all kinds of mental disorders and to family carers to such persons. What began as a web portal, flourished into a peer support community beginning with its Mumbai chapter. It now has chapters in most of the major metro cities of India, viz, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad besides Mumbai and conducts peer support meetings, conferences and workshops for its community (both offline and virtually).

It has been hosting National Conferences to mark the World Bipolar Day each year, beginning in 2016 at S P Jain Auditorium, Bombay Hospital. Offline meets have taken firm roots in Mumbai and the online meets ensure the community from all parts of India (including smaller towns) gets to participate. Expansion of offline meets in other cities is gradually taking shape. The community is connected virtually too, via Telegram App and this works as a safe space for peers to express themselves. Psychosocial Support is offered in real time by peers and this process has witnessed fine leadership springing up from within the peers. The organisation has also intervened in times of health crises to support its community members.

MHSF strongly believes that the narrative around mental health interventions need to move beyond the narrow lens of symptomatic recovery. It thus considers rehabilitation and social integration of persons living with mental disorders an important objective.

Its livelihoods initiative, Let's Walk Together addresses a highly neglected aspect of rehabilitation. Launched in 2021, this initiative has elicited support of fine organisations from the policy and inclusion space. With the recently received funding support from Mariwala Health Initiative, MHSF aims to work with greater focus on fulfilling the promise that Let's Walk Together holds for its community members and beyond.

The Foundation is based in Mumbai with a mandate for outreach across India.