India, 3.5.2023: Amaha (formerly known as InnerHour) was founded in 2016 by renowned psychiatrist and healthcare entrepreneur Dr Amit Malik, with a vision of making quality mental healthcare accessible to anyone who is dealing with a mental health difficulty. In 2019, social entrepreneur and global mental health ambassador Neha Kirpal joined him as Co-founder. In a country with already over 200 million people suffering from mental illness, the Covid pandemic brought additional mental health challenges into almost every home and workplace – creating a surge in addictions, psychosis, suicides, self harm, trauma and other mental health challenges.
Over the last seven years, Amaha has emerged as one of India’s largest and most reputed mental health organisations – offering clinical expertise, global best practices and technology-based support for quick and easy access to people in distress. Last year alone, Amaha’s team of 110 psychiatrists and psychologists delivered over 35,000 therapy and psychiatry sessions online in 15+ languages, to individuals across 300+ Indian cities – and also set up its first three in-person centres in Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Mumbai. The Amaha digital app has touched over 4.5 million lives globally; with free self-care tools & programmes, educational content and assessments for early intervention. The organisation also provides access to an online support community of over 20,000 members.
In 2022, to further their commitment of serving individuals and families across their lifespan, Amaha acquired Delhi NCR-based renowned Child and Adolescent Mental Health organisation, Children First, that has supported over 12,000 families since its inception over a decade ago.
Amaha aims to create an umbrella organisation to provide integrated treatment & care across the lifespan, through a combination of its therapy sessions, psychiatric care, self-care tools & community support for individuals, families and workplaces. Amaha’s Emotional Well-being Programme for workplaces and colleges presently covers over 700,000 individuals across the country, and together with Children First they will be offering further clinical support and training for schools & colleges as well.
Dr. Amit Malik, Founder and CEO, said, “In a country as large and underserved as India, I believe ensuring early access to high quality mental health services is critical for effective and lasting recovery – so people can truly feel better, get better, and stay better. At Amaha, our vision is to provide trusted mental healthcare in all our centres across India, as well as online from dawn to midnight – 365 days a year. Given India carries a third of the world’s mental health burden, Amaha is on a mission to build sustainable and scalable offerings of the highest quality.”
