PETALING JAYA, Oct 22 — Maintaining good mental health is important, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mobile platform PlusVibes was thus established to integrate mental health associations, clinics, volunteer listeners and campaigners, with the aim to break cultural perspectives and stigma concerning mental health.

Its founder Madiha Fuad, 30, told Malay Mail that she established the all-in-one platform after enduring months of pain from nerve damage.

"It happened early this year and with the movement control order (MCO) in place, I only managed to seek treatment only later in June this year.

"But what I had to endure was months of physical and emotional pain and it was unbearable and that demotivated me and broke my spirits.”

She then got in touch with doctors, people in the medical line and also her friends who were also facing difficulties in their own ways.

"We realised that we were not in that critical mental illness stage and that was when we decided to research and form a support and motivation platform that combines different areas such as relationships and emotional health.”

Madiha said that one of the special features of PlusVibes was that it caters to a local crowd through integrating local non-governmental organisations and various associations.

"PlusVibes has partnered with many local and trusted associations in the area of financial support, relationships, therapies and the counsellors online are also local people which makes communication easier for Malaysians.

"And the application connects to many associations in its page which makes it easier for people to surf the respective trusted mental health associations - and increases market reach for these organisations.”

As many have also lost their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Madiha said that the application is timely as users are also able to read various financial articles and videos to equip themselves with ways to cope with the pandemic.

Madiha said that the application also allows users to chat anonymously through voice chat or its messenger so that users can disclose their problems or issues they are facing.

"This allows the users and medical professionals to only communicate using our in-house application which is our voice chat.”

The 30-year-old said that the comprehensive platform is also working on getting 24-hour on-call counsellor assistance, but for now counsellors would be working following designated hours.

Asked who PlusVibes’ target audience is, Madiha said that the application focuses on teenagers and young adults who are tech-savvy consumers who are most likely to access their smartphones to search for online articles and videos.

The application also features physical well-being exercises such as yoga, breathing exercises and even guided meditation programmes that can help the young ones cope with stress.

"While the idea of guided meditation or breathing techniques might still be new among local consumers, we want them to know and understand how breathing technique videos can help reduce their stress levels through the step-by-step videos in our website,” she said.