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VIVA Social Communication
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Can you use design thinking to strengthen mental health conversations in low-resource settings?

Client

Americares India Foundation

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Context

Strengthening mental health conversations and outcomes in the low-resource settings of Mumbai, working with counsellors and frontline teams who engage clients directly.

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The Challenge

Reaching clients in low-literacy, high-stigma settings was difficult. Stigma made open dialogue hard, clients struggled to express emotions, and counsellors lacked visual, accessible tools to engage them effectively.

Solutions

  1. Design thinking framework: User versus client differentiation, journey mapping, and audience profiling to ground interventions in lived realities.
     

  2. Co-designed workshops: Collaborative sessions with counsellors, programme leads, and field staff to shape context-driven solutions.
     

  3. IEC tools: Aids to articulate feelings, debunk myths, and normalise stress and coping for lasting behaviour change.

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Solutions

  1. Wheel of Emotions, a visual aid to help clients name and express what they feel.

  2. Myths and misconceptions cards to debunk common beliefs around mental illness.

  3. Stress-o-meter, a simple visual tool to gauge and talk about stress.

Results

Enabled counsellors and frontline teams with context-sensitive, co-created tools and a shared language to engage low-literacy communities, reduce stigma around mental health, and support clients in expressing emotions, navigating stress, and building lasting coping behaviours.

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