National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-16

NMHS
arm of the NMHP, currently led by a
psychiatrist or a medical doctor trained
in mental health. Strengthening
the knowledge and skills of DMHP
officers in each state should move
beyond diagnosis and drugs towards
acquiring skills in programme
implementation,monitoring and
evaluation. Training in leadership
qualities as required at the district
level are essential.
5. Human resource development at all
levels requires creating mechanisms
by identifying training institutions
– trainers – resources – schedules–
financing at the state level.
• In all human resource activities,
creating virtual internet based
learning mechanisms to successfully
train and hand-hold all non-specialist
health providers’ needs expansion;
this can achieve the task shifting to
non-specialists or other disciplines of
medical care.
• Technology based applications for
near-to-home-based care using smartphone
by health workers, evidencebased
(electronic) clinical decision
support systems for adopting
minimum levels of care by doctors,
creating systems for longitudinal
follow-up of affected persons to
ensure continued care through
electronic databases and registers
can greatly help in this direction. To
facilitate this, convergence with other
flagship schemes such as Digital
India needs to be explored.
• The existing Centers of Excellence,
mental hospitals, NIMHANS,
medical college psychiatry units or
state training institutes should be
given the responsibility of developing
the requisite training calendar /
programmes.
6. Minimum package of interventions in
the areas of mental health promotion,
care and rehabilitation that can be
implemented at medical colleges, district
and sub-district hospitals, and primary
health care settings should be developed
in consultation with state governments
and concerned departments and an action
plan formulated for its implementation
in a phased manner.
• Focused programmes need to be
developed and / or the existing
programmes strengthened in the areas
of child mental health, adolescent
mental health, geriatric mental health,
de-addiction services, suicide and
violence prevention and disaster
management. This should start with
state level and subsequently extended
to the district level.
• These activities should be developed
initially within DMHP programme
and expanded to non-DMHP
programmes, scaled up as mental
health extension-outreach activities
within their districts with the
involvement of local medical college
psychiatry units and district hospitals.
Inaccessible areas and underprivileged
communities should be given priority.
7. Upgradation of existing facilities to treat
and rehabilitate persons with mental
illness will require further strengthening
of existing mental hospitals as
mandated by the National Human
Rights Commission and provided by
other previous schemes of the Health
ministry. This will require the creation
of an accessible stepped care system of
mental health care in mental hospitals,
district hospitals and medical colleges
(in both public and private sector) in
addition to existing public systems of
care, recognizing that at present more
than 85% of medical care occurs in the
private non-governmental sphere.
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SMHSA