Wellcome has awarded £5.3 million to Wysa to fund a scale-up study aimed at adapting a clinically validated digital mental health intervention for adolescent girls living in rural India, a group facing severe mental health inequities and structural barriers to care.
The project will support research led by Wysa, whose digital mental health interventions have been evaluated in peer-reviewed research and deployed across public health systems and healthcare programs internationally. Working with academic and community partners in the UK and India, the study will focus on adapting an evidence-based approach to address anxiety and depression among adolescent girls, while accounting for local realities that can limit access to support.
The study will begin by identifying cultural and contextual barriers that affect how adolescent girls seek and receive mental health help, including limited autonomy, restricted access to technology, lower literacy, stigma, and family gatekeeping. Those findings will inform updates to both the delivery model and the content of Wysa’s intervention to better align with the lived experiences of girls and their communities. The research will then evaluate the efficacy of the adapted intervention and its delivery in real-world low- to middle-income settings.
Wellcome noted the funding was awarded through its call focused on developing and scaling digital innovations for early intervention, with the goal of advancing approaches that can reach young people earlier and more effectively.
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“This funding allows us to go far beyond simple translation. By working closely with academic and community partners, we aim to co-design a digital intervention that is not only clinically effective, but genuinely usable and relevant for adolescent girls living in rural India.”
Chaitali Sinha, Chief Clinical R&D Officer, Wysa
“We are delighted to support Wysa in their work to adapt and scale up this evidence-based digital intervention to address anxiety and depression in adolescent girls across rural India. This funding was awarded as part of our call to find the best ways to develop and scale digital innovations for early intervention.”
Miranda Wolpert, Director of Mental Health, Wellcome
