Headspace offers free subscriptions to Indian healthcare workers

With India experiencing a deadly second wave of COVID-19, local doctors, medical administrators and healthcare workers on the frontlines are experiencing fatigue and burnout at an unprecedented scale.

At this crucial time, Headspace has announced that it will be providing free Headspace subscription valid till May 2022 to healthcare professionals working across India to address the rising levels of stress and burnout. The offer is available to all public and private sector healthcare professionals across India.

Healthcare practitioners can gain access to the Headspace app by providing some basic identification information via the Headspace website. All registered healthcare providers can visit the Headspace website and fill in a secure, quick, and easy form to receive a free Headspace subscription for one year.

To ensure extensive reach across public and private sectors, healthcare workers registered on Lybrate, a mHealth platform that connects patients with healthcare providers, can also register with their Lybrate Identification number here via the website.

For the uninitiated, Headspace offers guided meditations, eyes-open exercises, breathing and wind-down exercises, Sleepcasts, soundscapes and more. 

Physician burnout has been identified as a public health crisis for its adverse impacts for both doctors and patients. Research shows mindfulness and meditation can positively impact many of the factors related to burnout, including stress and negative emotions. Headspace research specifically shows a 14% reduction in burnout after as little as four sessions among healthcare professionals and  12% reduction in stress for medical students after 30 days.

"Healthcare providers are on the front lines of the ongoing public health crisis, making sure the communities receive necessary and critical care. At Headspace, we realise it's crucial for us to find ways to support their mental health and provide them with tools for managing the very real personal toll this crisis takes on them in particular. Headspace is dedicated to scientific rigor and advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research. 28 clinical studies show that using our application has led to positive outcomes like reduced stress and burnout, and we are committed to do our small part to make the benefits of meditation and mindfulness accessible to healthcare workers in India as they do the incredibly important work of caring for their communities," said Jolawn Victor, Chief International Officer at Headspace.

"Resurgence of COVID has put an immense burden on healthcare infrastructure," said Saurabh Arora, Founder & CEO, Lybrate. "In the second 'catastrophic' wave, doctors have been under extreme pressure. They are doing everything in their capacity to save the lives of patients, sometimes going beyond what is expected of them. To honour the services of our doctors and provide them with a way to cope with day-to-day stress, we have partnered with Headspace to offer healthcare experts free access to meditation and calming techniques," he added.

In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Headspace has made its premium content available for free for all medical professionals in the US, UK, France, and now in India.