With new mental health campaign, Deepika tells school children 'you are not alone'

Deepika Padukone's mental health foundation Live Love Laugh is launching a year-long awareness campaign 'You Are Not Alone' today.

The campaign will be focused on school students and teachers, and will start from Deepika's own alma mater, Sophia's High School in Bangalore, reported Times of India. Deepika hopes that the awareness campaign will "bring the issue of mental health from the shadows, of being spoken of in hushed tones, to our drawing rooms."

"Last year, I spoke up about my own fight with depression as I felt I couldn't just watch as people went through what I had suffered and we decided to launch 'You Are Not Alone' with an idea to raise awareness and to enable students and teachers to identify signs of anxiety and depression," the 30-year-old actress said.

"We believe that schools can be the first line of defence for emotional and mental health disorders in our youth. We could also help connect the schools to counselling organisations and independent counsellors if they need such help," she added.

A few of the over 200 selected schools will be covered in March, while the campaign will begin in the remaining schools in June.