NHRDN Mind Matters 2.0 raises awareness about mental health

National HRD Network’s (NHRDN) ‘Mind Matters’ campaign aims to create awareness about mental well-being and eliminate the stigma attached to the mental health issues so that organisations make it a strategic priority.

The Mind Matters campaign by NHRDN offers information and sessions that drive home the importance and significance of mental wellbeing for individuals as well as employers. It hopes to let everyone understand that mental health is as important as physical health.

Raising awareness is not enough. “Training has to be imparted for managers, and various platforms and opportunities have to be offered to enable people to reach out for help,” according to, Krish Shankar, group head – HR, Infosys & president -NHRDN 2019 – 21.

Nikita Doshi, co-curator, Mind Matters feels that the pandemic-imposed situations led to many people feeling stressed, anxious, fearful and lonely. In such situations, it is even more important to take care of one’s mental health and seek help to resolve any emotional distress.

Mind Matters 2.0 aims to get more people and organisations to discuss mental health openly and without judgement. Its Toolkit has managed to get over 1.8 million unique views, which is way more than expected, admits Devika Dharmaraj, co-curator, Mind Matters.

The NHRDN Mind Matters 2.0 toolkit contains the following:

• Tips to deal with Covid Anxiety as individuals, parents, caregivers, employers
• Suggestions on how to have a conversation with a person dealing with a mental health issue
• Advice on whether to seek help
• EAP helpline numbers
• Employer Best Practices around mental health
• Mental health best practices by Accenture, Clix, Deloitte, ICICI Prudential, Infosys, ITC, Mindtree, Page Industries, Publicis Sapient, SAP, Shell, Unilever

Geeta Kumar expresses her delight at being able to curate the Mind Matters series on behalf of National HRD Network, along “with a fabulous team that just seamlessly converged”. According to her, each topic in the series was well thought through and has helped bring a very comprehensive and holistic perspective across the various dimensions of mental and emotional health for corporate professionals. The interactive format was very useful for the audience to take away concrete actionable points for themselves, their teams & families.

The recent campaign, witnessed 1500+ attendees at NHRDN’s Weekly Friday Expert Sessions around Wellbeing, the recordings of which are available on YouTube. The topics covered include anxiety, caregiving, parenting, loss & grief, workshop on gratitude, fireside chat with Shaheen Bhatt and so on.