Talk It Out Organisation(TIO)
- Kenya
Talk It Out Organisation(TIO) is a non profit institution that advocates for mental wellness and actively treating mild mental conditions through a unique nature pictoral therapy. (Non-medical)
Currently we run our mental wellness campaigns through social media. We have partnered with social media groups, women support groups and youth groups.This way we reach out to distressed persons a bit faster and with ease.
Currently, their is a very alarming trend of deaths either through suicide or murders associated with mental illnesses majorly depression. Logistically, we are limited to Nairobi County, and reach out to persons outside Nairobi virtually but majority in the villages are not able to connect with us online.
If the tide favours us, we will use the funding to scale up our services, to the remaining 46 counties in the country, increase personel and intensify our mental wellness campaigns. We will also set up several physical addresses that will enable walk in destressed persons get help.
The funding will enable us to put up a robust website with unique log in features that conceals the real identity for privacy purposes. This will help serve persons who find it difficult to open up about their conditions.
My name is Mercy Kioko, 28years old. I am the Founder and CEO of TIO. At the age of 16year, i suffered severe depression after the death of my mother. Being the first born, i was expected to be tough and brace the grieve "like a man". I was not allowed to be weak emotionally. However, few months down the line, I crumbled. The fake strength I had demonstrated vanished. I was in denial, I was not mentally okay. The stigma around my condition made it worse. Words like "Spirit possed, weakling, attention seeker, bewitched" were casually thrown at me. I tried to find help but it was scarce and very expensive for my family to afford. Years down the line, I overcame depression. I made it my challenge to help people who might suffer the same fate as me. This time round, easily accessible, affordable and with less stigma. That is how TIO came to be in 2019.
TIO organisation is currently a virtual and mobile organisation actively advocating for mental wellness and non medical treatment of mild mental conditions. We source for distress posts all over social media platforms,refferals through women and Youth groups. We reach out and immediately offer help.Our unique therapy has proven highly effective. 677 of the 824 cases we've attended to have fully recovered, with 100 still under therapy and 47 referred for professional psychiatric assessment.
Our purpose is to offer a shoulder to lean on to thousands of Kenyans, who are battling mental conditions, and reduce stigma around mental illnesses. We long for and working towards a mentally healthy society. Our vision is to make mental wellness services available to every Kenyan.
Here in Kenya, mental illnesses have sky rocketed according to the latest study.Treating mild to severe mental conditions is the major problem. Its highly expensive and the stigmatization around mental conditions bar many people from seeking help.According to the latest survey, 9/20 people are depressed or more likely to be depressed.Psychosocial and economic crises have highly contributed to this problem, with Covid -19 pandemic making the situation worse.
Kenya has witnessed high number of suicide and gruesome murders among spouses due to depression.
TIO was founded to step in the gap and offer alternative help to people battling mental conditions.Ever since its inception, TIO has helped hundreds of Kenyans overcome common mental conditions like bipolar and depression, through our unique therapy treatment.
This therapy treatment, unlike existing methods, is highly affordable, easily accessible, highly confidential and effective.We handle each case with specific, unique personal approach for excellent results.
Our programme involves scouting for alarming distress posts all over different social media channels, working in close patnerships with Admins of major social media groups, and refferals from members of public. We immediately reach out for early intervention before another suicide case is numbered.
Our unique well selected, decoded, nature pictoral therapy, has proven effective.
The TIO is a unique pictoral therapy, existing only in Kenya, originally crafted and owned by the TIO organisation.Unlike the existing unfriendly, costly , traditional medic mode of treatment, our therapy is modern, affordable, easily available and Virtual.
This therapy relies on unique pictures of mother nature, carefully selected, decoded, to pass a specific message that works to psychologically disentangle and guide.Its intense nature purposely crafted to achieve results a bit faster and easier.
Currently, we are working on a unique website that upon login, assigns a temporaly unique ID code to conceal the real identity of the person seeking help, for confidential purposes. This way, people can seek help without necessarily having to reveal their identity, and makes opening up easy. If funded, we will launch this website within the shortest time possible.
TIO organisation is also working on a youtube channel, where the general majority can access therapy videos, that generally guide on mental health.
A mentally healthy society is a functional society in soo many ways.Its sad that mental illnesses have become a barrier in achieving this.
Three major factors that hinder mental care treatment are,:Stigma, High cost of treatment and unavailabity of menal health centres.Stigma has made it impossible for people to seek help due to name printing that is ignorantly painted on mental conditions. As an effect, many deaths have been numbered through suicide and gruesome murders of spouses.
Talk It Out Organisation is everything about positive impact. Upholding thr human dignity, we are and will continue to carry out massive campaigns on mental wellness as the first step of addressing the problem. Our aim clearly to demisty the narratives peddled around mental conditions.Our approach is also crafted to ensure affordable and easily accessible help, with deliberate effort to deliver positive results.
- Women & Girls
- Pregnant Women
- LGBTQ+
- Children & Adolescents
- Elderly
- Rural
- Peri-Urban
- Urban
- Poor
- Low-Income
- Middle-Income
- Persons with Disabilities
- 3. Good Health and Well-being
- Health