National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-16

• The DMHP is the key implementation 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 smart-phone by
health workers, evidence-based (electronic) clinical decision support systems for
adopting minimum levels of care by doctors, creating systems for longitudinal followup
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