National Mental health policy
Policies specify the standards that
need to be applied across all programs and services, linking them all with a
common vision, objectives and purpose. Without this overall coordination,
programs and services are likely to inefficient and fragmented.
The first draft on National mental
health policy (NMHP)) was prepared in late 2001 and came into existence in
2003. The NMHP is being energetically implemented with adequate budgetary
support in the 10th five year plan.
The National Mental Health Policy
outlines the prioritized agenda for extending within a pragmatic time-frame
basic mental health care facilities to all sections of the population across
the country by the year 2020
Policy objectives:
a)
The District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), redesigned
around a Nodal Institution which in most instances will be the Zonal Medical
College.
b)
Strengthening the Medical Colleges with a view to
develop psychiatric manpower (HRD), improve psychiatric treatment facilities at
the secondary level and to promote the development of general hospital
psychiatry in order to reduce and eventually to eliminate to a large extent the
need for big mental hospitals with a huge proportion of long-stay patients.
c)
Streamlining and modernization of Mental Hospitals to
transform them from the present mainly custodial mode to tertiary care centers
of excellence with a dynamic social orientation for providing leadership to
research and development (R&D) in the field of community mental health.
d)
Strengthening of Central and State Mental Health
Authorities in order that they may effectively fulfill their role of monitoring
ongoing Mental Health Programmes, determining priorities at the ventral / state
level and promoting intersectoral collaboration and linkages with other
national programmes.
e)
Research and training aimed at building up an extensive
database of epidemiological information relating to mental disorders and their
course / outcome, therapeutic needs of the community, development of better and
more cost-effective intervention models, promotion of intersectoral research
and providing the necessary inputs/ conceptual framework for health and policy
planning.
f)
Focused IEC activities, formulated with the active
collaboration of professional agencies such as the National Institute Of Mass
Communication and directed towards enhancing public awareness and eradicating
the stigma/discrimination related to mental illness, will form an important
component of this policy objective.
Prioritized Goals
Subject to availability of resources
the following time-frame is visualized for attainment in a phased manner the
policy objectives outlined above.
10th Five year Plan (2002-2007)
·
District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) will be
extended to one district attached to each of the 100-Medical College in
Country, thereby covering 100-Districts by the end of the plan period including
the 27- districts where DMHP is alreadv in place, thus making a total of 100-
districts across the Country.
·
Strengthening of Medical Colleges with
allocation of Rs.50.00 lakhs each to 100 Medical Colleges preferably located in
backward areas for upgrading the departments of psychiatry with the airn of
instituting post graduate training courses leading to MD (Psychiatry).
·
Streamlining and modernization of Mental
Hospitals with the aim of reduction in chronicity through intensive therapeutic intervention
using non-conventional antipsychotic medications, promoting care of chronically
mentally ill patients in the community using outreach maintenance modalities
and reduction of load/rational downsizing to ensure quality mental health care
to a manageable number of patients.
·
Strengthening of Central and State Mental Health
Authorities by facilitating the establishment of permanent secretariats and
related machinery and networking of the state authorities with that at the
national level to ensure effective coordination in all areas of activity.
·
Research and training by sponsoring relevant
community based research projects and building up an extensive database which
will form the basis for development of intervention models and policy planning.
11 th Five year Plan (2007-2012)
·
The district mental health programme will be
extended to another 100-districts while consolidating the same in the
100-districts covered at the end of the 10th plan.
·
Psychiatry Department of the remaining Medical
Colleges will be upgraded and the infrastructure created during the previous
plan will be reinforced.
·
Based on the results of the disinvestments plan
in CIP, Ranchi, the process will be extended to IOmore Mental Hospitals with
the aim of/ construction modem buildings and providing state of the art
equipment as well as adequate staff.
·
The activities of the Central and State Mental
Health Authorities will be augmented.
·
Qualitative as well as quantitative improvements
will be introduced in the areas of research, training and IEC, with more
focused attention on epidemiological catchments area surveys on a larger scale.
12th Five year Plan (2012-2019)
·
The district mental health programme will be
extended to the remaining 161 -districts and the gains made in the previous
plans will be consolidated, up gradation of the remaining 39-Medical College
Psychiatry Departments will be undertaken and 20-Mental Hospitals will be taken
up for
·
Disinvestments / reconstruction.
·
Non-viable mental hospitals will be closed down
or merged with general hospitals to create general hospital psychiatry units
(GHPUs).
·
Central and State Mental Health Authorities will
be further reinforced and technologically more sophisticated long-term research
projects will be initiated in selected institutions while continuing support to
community based research. IEC activities will be augmented to cover all
sections of the population across the whole country.
·
A comprehensive, holistic assessment and review
of programme performance in the preceding two decades will be undertaken at the
national and state levels bv an independent agency to identify achievements,
areas of non or poor performance, remedial measures. current needs and future
Conclusion
·
The National Mental Health Policy is aimed at
doing "the greatest good to the largest number" through five
interdependent and mutually synergistic strategies, to be implemented in a
phased manner over the next two decades.
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