Elsevier

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Volume 39, January 2019, Pages 29-31
Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Short communication
Symposium summary on “Community Psychiatry and DMHP—An update”

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2018.11.014Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Session on exciting developments in District Mental Health Program of Karnataka state and prospects of moving towards the ‘Taluk Mental Health Program’.

  • Role of technology that facilitated these new developments.

  • Public health perspectives for special populations including geriatric, children and adolescents and perinatal.

  • Role of NIMHANS in the redefining Community Psychiatry in India.

  • Networking between DMHP teams and professionals of Preventive and Social Medicine.

Abstract

This summary provides details of a one-day symposium, titled ‘Community Psychiatry and District Mental Health Program (DMHP)- An update’ that was organized jointly by the Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru in collaboration with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka on September 3rd 2018. This symposium was supported by Dr. Ramachandra N Moorthy, foundation for Mental Health and Neurological Sciences, NIMHANS, Bengaluru.

Section snippets

Declaration of interest statement

The authors have no competing interest to declare.

Acknowledgement

This symposium was supported by Dr. Ramachandra N Moorthy foundation for Mental Health and Neurological Sciences, NIMHANS, Bengaluru.

References (18)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (5)

  • A report on successful introduction of tele mental health training for primary care doctors during the COVID 19 pandemic

    2022, Asian Journal of Psychiatry
    Citation Excerpt :

    District Mental Health Program (DMHP) which is the essential implementation unit of India’s national mental health program is functional in all its districts (Khurana and Sharma, 2016). Greater synergism of the DMHP with the primary healthcare services is required (Sadh et al., 2019). Increased awareness of MH issues especially those associated with substance use disorders was present; a further requirement was improved competencies for primary care doctors (PCDs) to screen, diagnose and provide basic management for various MHCs.

  • Implementing National Mental Health Program: Local leaders’ perspectives and lessons for national action

    2020, Asian Journal of Psychiatry
    Citation Excerpt :

    The program happened in 5 batches with each batch included sessions on the above mentioned topics in addition to orientation to NIMHANS infrastructure. As NIMHANS being a pioneer institute in supporting the NMHP, it has been taking up roles of mentoring HAs and SPs across the nation on mental health, training manpower and thereby improving clinical services (Kulkarni et al., 2018; Sadh et al., 2019). HAs and SPs serve as local leaders in marshalling their NMHP staffs towards achieving its objectives and hence fine-tuning their leadership skills would benefit themselves and their subordinates to better understand patients’ needs, formulate newer and innovative strategies and put-forth meaningful discussions among policy makers in pursuit of necessary resources (Szabo et al., 2017).

  • Change in attitude of ASHAs towards persons with mental illnesses following participation in community based rehabilitation project

    2019, Asian Journal of Psychiatry
    Citation Excerpt :

    One of the grand challenges in mental health is to “provide effective and affordable community-based care and rehabilitation” and “develop effective treatments for use by non-specialists, including lay health workers with minimal training” (Collins et al., 2011). Consistent with this, in India, recent legislations and programmes have had specific focus on community-based mental health care and rehabilitation (Namboodiri et al., 2019; Sadh et al., 2019; Ul hassan et al., 2019). Negative attitude of health workers is a deterrent for patients to seek health care (Ibrahim et al., 2014).

View full text