Thank you Ajay for bringing this into the forefront. As always, this article too is very insightful. It's indeed sad to know the current state of affairs around the utilisation of funds for mental health in our country. I have some questions about it and would like to hear more from you and others who are into policies related to mental health. ( I'm not sure how relevant they may be, or if they have already been addressed. I'm also not aware of the way these function, and hence thought it'd be good to know more and be informed).
1.Can you throw light on the number of MH professionals working in DMHP, vacancies and recruitment, task shifting and service utilisation?. Though 600+districts have DMHPs, how many of them are actually functional with respect to provision of mental health services?
2. What are the ways in which MH professionals can be part of different committees to enhance the utilisation and involve in research about the same? ( I reckon that you have addressed some of these in one of your previous articles about "participating in public consultation on laws and policies and writing to MLAs/ MPs") How can we push the govt to consider the observations of the Parliamentary standing committee like you have mentioned?
Your articles and work on this have been very helpful to indulge in critical and reflective thinking. Wishing the best for more to come!
Thank you very much for your appreciation and questions.
1. We don't know. The Govt of India does not maintain data on this. So I'm planning to file RTIs in every state to obtain this information.
2. The psychologists are members of SMHAs and CMHA. In future, they would be members in the NCAHP also. They are the supreme bodies in this profession, so their powers need to be utilized. On making the government accountable and pushing it, I have said again and again that the changes at policy and political levels are brought about by groups. That's why psychology associations are so important, but their members never ask the leaderships such questions. A substandard annual conference with paneer rice and they are satisfied with their associations' non-performance.
Thank you so much for this article. So well researched and explained. My question is on what basis are funds allocated to each state? For example the funds allocated for West Bengal is very less. States smaller in size and with much less population have been allocated more funds. Does the Central government unanimously decide this or do states get a say regarding this?
I don't know actually. The states governments do get a say as they are the ones who prepare proposals and are the implementing authorities. I'll find the answer and get back to you. Thank you for your question.
Thank you for such an informative article. The article has some seemingly upsetting yet eye opening numbers that tells us to re think the mental health care funding in India.
Thank you Ajay for bringing this into the forefront. As always, this article too is very insightful. It's indeed sad to know the current state of affairs around the utilisation of funds for mental health in our country. I have some questions about it and would like to hear more from you and others who are into policies related to mental health. ( I'm not sure how relevant they may be, or if they have already been addressed. I'm also not aware of the way these function, and hence thought it'd be good to know more and be informed).
1.Can you throw light on the number of MH professionals working in DMHP, vacancies and recruitment, task shifting and service utilisation?. Though 600+districts have DMHPs, how many of them are actually functional with respect to provision of mental health services?
2. What are the ways in which MH professionals can be part of different committees to enhance the utilisation and involve in research about the same? ( I reckon that you have addressed some of these in one of your previous articles about "participating in public consultation on laws and policies and writing to MLAs/ MPs") How can we push the govt to consider the observations of the Parliamentary standing committee like you have mentioned?
Your articles and work on this have been very helpful to indulge in critical and reflective thinking. Wishing the best for more to come!
Thank you very much for your appreciation and questions.
1. We don't know. The Govt of India does not maintain data on this. So I'm planning to file RTIs in every state to obtain this information.
2. The psychologists are members of SMHAs and CMHA. In future, they would be members in the NCAHP also. They are the supreme bodies in this profession, so their powers need to be utilized. On making the government accountable and pushing it, I have said again and again that the changes at policy and political levels are brought about by groups. That's why psychology associations are so important, but their members never ask the leaderships such questions. A substandard annual conference with paneer rice and they are satisfied with their associations' non-performance.
Thank you so much for this article. So well researched and explained. My question is on what basis are funds allocated to each state? For example the funds allocated for West Bengal is very less. States smaller in size and with much less population have been allocated more funds. Does the Central government unanimously decide this or do states get a say regarding this?
I don't know actually. The states governments do get a say as they are the ones who prepare proposals and are the implementing authorities. I'll find the answer and get back to you. Thank you for your question.
Thank you for such an informative article. The article has some seemingly upsetting yet eye opening numbers that tells us to re think the mental health care funding in India.
Thank you, Darpana :)