In a nation struggling with the dual adversaries of mental health stigma and misinformation, delivering effective services in the domain poses an overwhelming challenge. What’s crucial is the emergence of organizations that transcend these hurdles, providing systematic solutions to heal patients. Amaha emerges as an exemplary model in this landscape. Founded by Dr. Amit Malik, an esteemed Psychiatrist and Healthcare Entrepreneur, Amaha has successfully raised over INR 50 crore as an extended series A round—one of the largest investments in mental health in India. The organisation has secured INR 36.4 crore from Fireside Ventures as well as an additional investment of INR 15+ crore from other strategic investors.
With over two decades of global experience in psychiatry and healthcare entrepreneurship, Dr. Amit brings a wealth of knowledge to the forefront. Having traversed academia, clinical work, operational management, and leadership roles in both profit and non-profit sectors, his journey culminated in the establishment of Amaha in 2016. The genesis of Amaha arises from a desire to bridge the alarming 95% treatment gap in mental health care in India.
Amaha, formerly known as InnerHour, has rapidly evolved into one of India’s largest mental health organizations. With an in-house team of over 150 psychologists and psychiatrists, the organization operates in 15+ languages, ensuring accessibility to quality care for everyone.
Amaha’s mission is clear – to help anyone facing mental health difficulties feel better, get better, and stay better. Regardless of age, gender, or specific mental health condition, Amaha is dedicated to offering high-quality care.
Our interview with Dr. Amit provides insight into the groundbreaking strides of Amaha – an organization that not only addresses mental health challenges but redefines the landscape of care.
Brief us about Amaha and shed some light on its operations to provide mental health service to the patients.
At Amaha, my co-founder, Neha Kirpal and I and the rest of our amazing team strongly believe that great outcomes in mental health are delivered by accessible, coordinated, and personalised care. We are leveraging a combination of technology, clinical evidence, and operational expertise to build an efficient, accessible, and effective mental health ecosystem which is structured around the patient and their family. In tangible terms, this encompasses a range of mental health services from self-care to virtual and in-person consultations for people with complex needs, because the same individual (and family) would need different types of support at different points in their mental health journey. The major facets of our offerings are self-care assessments and tools, communities for peer support, and virtual and in-person consultation services for the entire spectrum of mental health challenges across the individual’s lifespan. We have built our organisation and platform keeping the individual at the centre of it all – so the idea is to cater to all kinds of mental health needs, for all illnesses and disorders, across the individual’s lifespan.
Can you elaborate upon the core values on which company is built and what is the mission of the company?
We put the client and their family first, at the core of our value system. That is our north star, guiding everything we deliver, including our operational and strategic focus.
As a direct outcome of this value, we lay great emphasis on delivering quality care by trained professionals. We have built a multidisciplinary team of 150+ mental health professionals, who have extensive experience in the field and are rigorously trained to support clients with their mental health needs. Amaha’s proprietary clinical protocols for different conditions serve as the base of all the solutions we offer and enable us to deliver the best possible care to each client.
In what ways does the company’s services help the patient population in resolving their psychological and emotional needs? Tell us about the process of delivering mental health services at the company.
In order to truly make mental healthcare accessible to anyone who is struggling, we knew we had to build a range of different offerings – in fact, everything that one might need on their mental health journey – and that’s what we have done over the past few years. Through our platform, individuals can access 1-1 support from our multidisciplinary team of therapists and psychiatrists (both online from across the country, and in-person at our Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi clinics). Amaha’s clinicians offer support in 15+ Indian languages. We have delivered 100,000+ sessions till date to individuals from 600+ Indian cities.
What psychological tools/therapies does the company find to be essential in conducting mental health treatment?
We draw from a range of evidence-based therapies and treatments to create personalised care plans for recovery and relapse-prevention. This means that we conduct thorough checks to identify which elements of scientifically proven methods will help individuals to feel better, get better and stay better.
Our offerings range from 1-1 professional support to self-care tools, and an online community for caregivers, people living with depression, coping with anxiety, managing OCD, adult ADHD, addiction support and LGBTQIA+ support.
Our psychological therapy services utilise cognitive behavioural, narrative, supportive and interpersonal approaches to empower clients to work through their concerns and develop skills to lead a better life. Our app offers personalised content, tools, trackers, and activities that individuals can engage with at their own pace for between-session health management and recovery.
What endeavours is the company currently pursuing to improve its mental health measures for people?
To stay true to our promise to help people feel better, get better, and stay better, we lay considerable emphasis on measuring and reviewing our clients’ emotional well-being and progress over time. Across the platform, we have a range of touchpoints to collect feedback from our clients in order to understand their experience with us and to identify areas of improvement. We rely heavily on different types of data to understand how effective our offerings are, and whether our clients find them engaging and effective.
Some of the data points that we religiously monitor are:
- NPS for different service offerings.
- Feedback scores given by clients for their therapists and/or psychiatrists.
- Scores on clinical outcome assessments, filled out by the therapist/psychiatrist, to measure the client’s state and overall well-being.
What advice would you like to give to budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who desire to venture into the mental health sector?
The journey of building a successful mental health venture will require a lot of grit and persistence. It is important to do this only if you truly feel committed to the cause, as this will be a journey for the long-term, with a lot of speed bumps along the way.
The mental health space is evolving, the client and their caregivers are evolving, and sometimes, even science is evolving. Stay attuned to what’s happening in the world and actively explore if there is better technology, better therapy, better solutions, and better company out there – and see what you can learn from their own experiences.
How do you envision scaling your organisation’s services and operations in 2024 and beyond?
We are encouraged by the recent round of investments into the organisation. The primary aim of the next year is to reach out to more people across the country, and to be able more effectively to cater to people with severe mental health conditions.
The goal for the team is to focus on expanding the breadth and depth of our services.
We are keen on opening up more centres so that people in different parts of the country can meet with a therapist and psychiatrist in person.
We also want to expand our clinical team – not just in terms of volume of professionals, but also in terms of the kinds of specialisations that our team can offer.
Reviews Reflecting Amaha’s Mental Health Commitment
Organisational:
“Amaha’s commitment to providing top-notch mental health care has been evident in their thoughtful approach to every case. They have a deep understanding of the unique challenges that our employees face and provide tailored solutions that address those effectively.”
- GODREJ
“We see Amaha’s EWP as an important investment for supporting employee wellness and are delighted with the level of engagement we are seeing.”
- ACKO
Client:
“It was great to have someone who can understand what you are going through. My therapist offered the best experience.”
“These counselling sessions have been incredibly helpful in my journey towards overcoming my mental health concerns. I feel motivated to continue learning and working on myself.”
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