Our Work

Wellness

Department

The Wellness Department focuses on facilitating beneficiaries and caregivers contacting us for help to receive the appropriate mental health support to improve their well-being and refer those requiring specialized services to the relevant providers. After the launch of our public awareness program, several beneficiaries started getting in touch with us for mental health support. Initially we referred them to external providers, but several beneficiaries couldn’t access in-person services and the existing virtual services did not cater to their needs. The Taskeen Helpline was launched in September 2020 to bridge this gap and was designed to be a virtual outpatient service offering telephonic mental health counselling, psychotherapy and psychiatric support based on the beneficiary’s needs.

Public Awareness

Department

The Public Awareness department aims to empower people with the knowledge and skills to improve their mental health, reduce stigma against mental illness and facilitate those affected by psychological problems to seek the help they need. Taskeen pioneered digital mental health awareness campaigns in Pakistan by launching campaigns on social media and mass media. These campaigns are complemented by Pakistan’s first online mental health portal which is a repository of mental health informational resources, mental health screening tools and mental health service providers. Since October 2019, the Public Awareness Department has produced various short films, animations, documentaries, and interviews of survivors that have reached more than 40 million people across Pakistan.

Community

Department

The Community Department aims to help participants learn about mental health, reduce the stigma against seeking help for mental illness and empower them with the knowledge, skills, and support to improve their wellbeing. This was one of the first programs of Taskeen in its initial years but had to be shut down because of the COVID pandemic, with it being relaunched by the organization in January 2024. Departmental activities consist of community-based interventions focusing on life skills development and resilience building, mental health screening and referral to mental health services.

Advocacy

Department

The Advocacy Department mobilizes civil society to lobby governmental stakeholders to increase investment in mental health and enact legislations and policies to improve the mental health landscape in Pakistan. The aim of Taskeen’s other departments have been to develop impactful and cost-effective models that can be sustained and scaled. However, we are cognizant of the fact that we cannot achieve true scale unless we partner with the government. In addition, there are structural barriers that prevent access to quality mental health services that can only be addressed at the policy level, which is why the advocacy department was developed and launched in March 2020.

Research

Department

The Research Department enhances Taskeen’s role in the mental health sector by conducting research to support program implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of findings to inform evidence-based interventions and policies. Over the years, Taskeen has developed and implemented different programs to address mental health challenges in Pakistan. Recognizing the critical need to document and share learnings from these initiatives, the Research Department was formed in March 2022 to integrate evidence-based methodologies into Taskeen’s programs and to contribute to the global mental health literature.