DW BUREAU / New Delhi

To improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services for the citizens, Union Government has established 53 Tele MANAS Cells (Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States) under National Tele Mental Health Programme which was launched in 2022 where more than 15.95 lakh calls have been handled on the helpline number so far. This information was shared by Minister of State in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in response to a question asked by Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Singh Sandhu during the on-going winter session in Parliament.

Stating further, the health minister said that to augment the mental health services further, the Union government has also launched Tele MANAS Mobile Application on World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2024. The budget allocated for schemes being run to provide mental health services under the Ministry, including allocation for National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) and National Tele-Mental Health Programme (NTMHP) for the year 2024-25 is Rs 30.71 Crore and Rs 90 Crore respectively.

Raising the issue of mental health in India, Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Singh Sandhu in his question asked in the parliament, sought details regarding steps taken by the union government towards mental health of Indians and schemes being run or allocations made to improve mental health of population.

In a written reply, Minister of State in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav said, "To strengthen mental health services at primary healthcare level, the union government has upgraded more than 1.73 lakh Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Operational guidelines on mental, neurological and substance use disorders (MNS) at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs have been released under the ambit of Ayushman Bharat."

Sharing details regarding the medical infrastructure for mental health services in the country, the health minister said, "There are 47 union government-run mental hospitals in the country while Mental Health Services are also provisioned in all AIIMS. These services are also available under PMJAY. In 2018, the Government has also established at three Central Mental Health Institutes namely National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam and Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi."

"Under the tertiary care component of NMHP, 25 Centres of Excellence have been sanctioned to increase the intake of students in PG departments in mental health specialties as well as to provide tertiary level treatment facilities. Further, the government has also supported 19 government medical colleges and institutions to strengthen 47 PG departments in mental health specialties.," added the health minister.

(editor@dailyworld.in)