Mental Health Programme in India: Has the tide really turned?

Mental disorders in India form a major public health concern and the efforts to tackle these dates back to four decades, by way of the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) and its operational arm, the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP). Although the progress of NMHP (and DMHP) was relatively...

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Published inIndian journal of medical research (New Delhi, India : 1994) Vol. 157; no. 5; pp. 387 - 394
Main Authors Gangadhar, B, Kumar, Channaveerachari, Sadh, Kamaldeep, Manjunatha, Narayana, Math, Suresh, Kalaivanan, Rakesh, Rao, Girish, Parthasarathy, Rajani, Chand, Prabhat, Chandra, Prabha, Thirthalli, Jagadisha, Murthy, Pratima, Varghese, Mathew, Mathur, Alok, Bairy, Bhavya, Kishore, Chethana, Gowda, Guru, Basvaraju, Vinay, Harihara, Shashidhara, Isaac, Mohan, Chaturvedi, S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Delhi Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd 01.05.2023
Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd
Scientific Scholar
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
Subjects
Evaluation
Laws, regulations and rules
Management
Mental disorders
Mental health
Programme: Review
Psychiatric services
India
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Summary:Mental disorders in India form a major public health concern and the efforts to tackle these dates back to four decades, by way of the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) and its operational arm, the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP). Although the progress of NMHP (and DMHP) was relatively slower till recently, the last 4-5 years have seen rapid strides with several initiatives, including (i) expansion of DMHPs to 90 per cent of the total districts of the country, (ii) the National Mental Health Policy and (iii) strengthening the Mental Health Legislation by way of providing explicit provisions for rights of persons with mental illnesses. Among others, factors responsible for this accelerated growth include the easily accessible digital technology as well as judicial activism. Federal and State cooperation is another notable feature of this expansion. In this review, the authors summarize the available information on the evolution of implementation and research aspects related to India's NMHP over the years and provide a case for the positive turn of events witnessed in the recent years. However, the authors caution that these are still baby steps and much more remains to be done.
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ISSN:0971-5916
0975-9174
DOI:10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_2217_20