Children First

Children First was set up by Dr Amit Sen, Dr Shelja Sen and Dr Kavita Arora. Over the years they were joined by some of the most committed and skilled professionals who aligned with our vision of building a community of concern for our children. Today, our multidisciplinary team is over 75 members strong and continues to grow across our centers in Safdarjung Enclave and Gurgaon.When we started out, the main objective was to move away from a hospital setting and establish a children’s center in the community; which provided effective, ethical and culturally resonant services.Over the past ten years Children First has directly worked with over 12,000 children, youth, families and their networks, dealing with a range of mental health conditions, developmental disorders and associated challenges. With a multidisciplinary team of over 75 psychologists, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, sensitised administrators and trained support staff, the CF team has been able to provide specialised and personalised care to children from 0 to 25 years.It has always been our belief that to truly support children, we have to care for their entire ecosystem- their families, their schools and communities. Over the years we have curated programmes like STC (Schools That Care), parenting, CTC (Communities that Care) and Imagine (our annual 360° confluence) and built ongoing partnerships with over 30 schools and colleges, with the vision of building nurturing and safe spaces for our children and youth to thrive.In our most recent development in 2022, we furthered our commitment to building an ecosystem to serve children as they grow up and to also provide support to their caregivers and communities. This is in growing recognition that mental health difficulties do not impact an individual alone but the entire family and community. We are doing this by coming together with Amaha -an organisation of great repute and reach serving adult mental health conditions through their digital platform and centers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.We believe that this coming together will be a big step in creating a truly integrated ecosystem of care across the lifespan and help scale the breadth of our services and programmes across contexts, geographies and digital platforms.Today the Children First and Amaha teams stand together as the largest dedicated and specialised mental health teams in the country with 160 professionals delivering assessments, care plans, therapy & psychiatric interventions, along with a wide range of trainings and community outreach programmes.We invite you to partner with us and support us in our mission, as we truly believe it takes an entire village to raise a child, and it takes all of humanity to give our children a better childhood and a hopeful future.