She cared for mother with schizophrenia for 20 years, now built India’s mental health network

New Delhi: Neha Kirpal spent her childhood as a caregiver to her mother, who lived with undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia for over 20 years before leaving home for a decade in 1994.

After years of navigating a fragmented system to find diagnosis and treatment, Kirpal left her career as founder of India Art Fair to co-found mental health platform Amaha in 2018.

Today Amaha has 300+ clinicians, reaches 600 towns, and does 40,000 sessions a month in 18 languages. She also founded the India Mental Health Alliance, with nearly 400 organisations.

“I dreamt that someday this country would have a care ecosystem that could take care of a whole family’s mental healthcare needs,” she told The Better India.