Landmark Slum Study In India Shows Community Care Can Improve Teen Mental Health

In a major breakthrough for adolescent mental healthcare in India, a first-of-its-kind, large-scale study conducted across urban slums in New Delhi and Vijayawada has shown that community-based interventions, combined with digital mental health support, can significantly reduce depression, self-harm, and suicide risks among vulnerable teenagers.

The study, titled ARTEMIS—Adolescents’ Resilience and Treatment nEeds for Mental Health in Indian Slums—was led by the George Institute for Global Health and has provided what experts call a practical and scalable roadmap for addressing mental health concerns among adolescents living in economically disadvantaged urban communities.

Published in JAMA Psychiatry, the study covered 60 slum clusters across the two cities and is being seen as India’s first large, urban slum-focused mental health intervention for adolescents.

The findings come at a crucial time when mental health concerns among young people are steadily rising. According to estimates cited by the researchers, nearly 7.3% of young people aged 18–29 years experience mental health problems, while adolescents living in urban slums face additional pressures linked to poverty, overcrowding, academic stress, limited access to care, and social stigma.

The ARTEMIS project reached more than 70,000 adolescents through awareness drives and engagement campaigns. Of the 3,739 adolescents formally enrolled in the study, nearly 47% were identified as being at high risk for common mental health disorders.

What makes the study particularly significant is that nearly 86% of high-risk adolescents in the intervention arm were successfully connected to trained primary healthcare providers—demonstrating that mental health services can be delivered effectively even in low-resource settings when community participation is prioritised.

Dr. Sandhya Kanaka Yatirajula, Programme Lead – Mental Health at The George Institute for Global Health India, said the project brought together adolescents between 10 and 19 years from slum communities who openly shared the emotional and psychological pressures they faced in daily life.

“These youngsters spoke about stress arising from parental pressure, peer relationships, academic burden, gender-based restrictions, and fears about the future,” she said.

Researchers said one of the biggest challenges in urban slum communities is that mental health problems often go unnoticed or untreated because of stigma, lack of awareness, and limited access to specialists.

To address this, the ARTEMIS project adopted a two-pronged strategy. The first involved locally tailored multimedia anti-stigma campaigns designed to encourage open conversations around mental health. The second used a digital screening platform to identify adolescents facing psychological distress or at risk of self-harm and connect them with care providers.

Prof. Pallab Maulik, Director of Research at The George Institute for Global Health India and Principal Investigator of the study, said the combination of awareness and accessible services played a key role in improving outcomes.

“The ARTEMIS project was a two-pronged approach to overcoming these problems,” he said. “The first involved the use of locally tailored multimedia campaigns to eliminate the stigma associated with mental disorders. The second approach was to use a digital system to screen adolescents for psychological distress and risks of self-harm and provide treatment to those at high risk.”

After one year, adolescents who received the intervention demonstrated significantly better awareness, attitudes, and behaviour toward mental health compared to those who did not participate. Researchers observed a measurable decline in depression scores among participants, along with stable recovery rates, said Dr. Rajesh Sagar from the Psychiatry Department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, and co-investigator of the study.

The researchers noted that the success of the programme lies in its ability to integrate mental healthcare into the community rather than relying solely on specialist institutions.

Importantly, the study also highlighted the role of digital tools in bridging gaps in mental healthcare delivery, especially in underserved areas where psychiatrists and psychologists remain scarce.

At the same time, researchers acknowledged several barriers that continue to affect mental healthcare access. These included social stigma, parental hesitation in seeking care, long distances to health centres, and scheduling difficulties because of school timings.

Despite these challenges, the intervention was found to be feasible and acceptable within community settings, offering hope that similar models can be expanded across other urban settlements in India.

Mental health experts say the findings reinforce the urgent need to integrate adolescent mental healthcare into primary healthcare systems, schools, and community programmes.

The study involved collaborations with several institutions, including King's College London; University of New South Wales; University of Toronto; Dr. AV Baliga Memorial Trust, Delhi; Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (University of Toronto); and Young Lives India, Delhi, besides AIIMS Delhi.

Public health experts believe the ARTEMIS model could become an important template for India as the country grapples with growing mental health challenges among its young population, particularly in vulnerable urban communities where emotional distress often remains invisible and untreated.