Ms Megha Sharma is Founder of Panacea BioEdge, a healthcare company with technology in the core of its products and solutions. A Health Activist, Innovator and Entrepreneur, Ms Sharma is working on a mission to transform mental healthcare practices by bringing technology intervention in the domain.
With a futuristic approach, she is leading efforts to partner with global players to bring advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solutions in India to address mental health issues among Indians, especially those corporate employees who face problems towards creating a work-life balance. In this opinion piece, she highlights the role of technology in bringing effective solutions to mental health issues as COVID pandemic continues to wreak havoc in the lives of people across the world.
COVID-19 seems like an endless saga with no end to it visible in sight. While vaccines may be considered as a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, the effects of the pandemic are not only confined to the physical health issues.
Working from home while juggling family responsibilities, financial instability and health concerns, all mixed together are creating a downward spiral of despair which is heavily affecting mental state of people. Especially the working-class families face a world that has drastically changed with life becoming much more distressful as compared to the non-COVID times. It should come as no surprise that a variety of mental health issues have started mushrooming amid the continuing COVID crisis, resulting in anxiety, stress and depression.
The mental health issues are even leading to suicidal tendencies among the people. This is evident from the fact of many suicides reported in the past one-and-a-half-year where the primary cause was job stress. To reduce such cases and address the rising mental health issues among corporate employees, it becomes very important that quick solutions are devised which can work on scale.
A report published by Oracle, titled ‘AI@Work Study 2020’, explored leadership and employee attitudes around mental health, artificial intelligence technology, digital assistants, chatbots and robots in the workplace. The study was conducted on 12,347 people comprising employees, managers, HR leaders, and C-level executives across 11 countries - US, UK, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, South Korea, and UAE.
According to the report, in India, more than 80% people experienced more stress and anxiety at work during the pandemic and about 89% of people said the pandemic has negatively affected their overall mental health. Further, around 85% of people said that their mental health issues at work have negatively affected their personal life.
The study also says that the mental health of employees has emerged as one of the major challenges for companies in the evolving work environment.
As a lasting solution, the study suggests, corporate employees can be provided technology-led mental health solutions as they are more comfortable talking about their mental health with a robot than their supervisors.
Technology solutions provide an unbiased platform and judgement free remedies to such mental health issues. Also, the use of Artificial Intelligence as a tool to maintain a healthy work-life balance is gaining ground in recent times.
It is high time that organizations in India consider the mental wellbeing of their employees where AI-based solutions can play a pivotal role in addressing such issues. Such solutions should not be seen only from the perspective of maintaining productivity, but also ensuring a well-balanced life of the employees.
*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article above are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of TheCSRUniverse and TheCSRUniverse does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
