dr k sekar professor and head of the centre for psychosocial support in disaster management cpssdm at nimhans informs that from march 2020 till now his team has responded to almost 448450 calls for help they are actively following up on around 53858 calls coming in from across the country every day the bmcmpower 1on1 24x7 mental health helpline launched by mpower in association with maharashtra government and the brihanmumbai municipal corporation bmc recently announced that they have received over 72000 calls since its launch in april 2020 and 25 per cent of those calls were from people experiencing anxiety and stress related to their career workplace issues fear of contracting covid19 health issues and exams but in the second wave experts have noticed that the calls coming in are differentno more calls of shock but helplessnessdr vinod kumar psychiatrist and head mpower bangalore informs the calls are no longer out of shock but more of here we go again and grief there is also the fear of guilt associated with the helplessness that has come with not being able to find oxygen beds and cylinders he adds that in bengaluru alone in the last few weeks they have received no less than 120140 calls per day seeking therapy and appointments in 2020 the calls were predominantly about social issues livelihood issues and this year the anxiety and worry includes fear of vaccines isolation issues at home or icu worries around availability of beds and oxygen also grief and bereavement for the loss of a loved one says dr sekar who adds that in general 10 per cent of the calls coming in were womenrelated issues and 87 per cent were from elderly or for issues related to senior citizenssingle parent issues come to the forethere are cases of single parents being infected and now they do not know what to do with their child or the loss of a mother or father and the burden of taking care of children and the elderly population says dr sekarfear of contaminationexperts have also noticed worsening of overall fears and mental health issues the second wave has come bigger and scarier it has bought with it more panic fear anxiety emotional distress and uncertainties the fear of contamination has been high and that has resulted in more calls from people with obsessivecompulsive disorder ocd people who experienced panic attacks last year around the same time are experiencing it worse now informs psychologist neha cadabamtop calls to helplines relationship issues anxiety or stress depression addiction anger management fear and guilt grief related callsdr rajani parthasarathi deputy director mental health karnataka health and family welfare department shares that their mental health team has made about 1420809 outbound calls to covid positive patients home quarantined or isolated passengers doctors health workers and migrants from march 11 2020 till may 6 2021a large amount and emotional and psychomotor reactions like being agitated hitting someone anger outbursts unnecessary shouting at others not being able to