Anirban Das

Mental health (MH) forms an integral constituent of an individual's normal health, appreciably affecting all areas of life. The importance of mental health has come to the leading edge in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the prevailing mental health burden in India and shone a light on the gaps withinside the modern technique to mental health care and the want to increase India's mental health ecosystem, Also that to a low cost to make to mental healthcare accessible and affordable to everyone.

According to a Lancet study and Global Health Data Exchange, India debts for almost 15% of the worldwide mental health burden, and one in seven Indians is envisioned to be afflicted by mental health issues. Currently, people with mental health issues face multiple challenges, including loss of awareness, social discrimination, and stigma, and a paucity of suitable resources. According to a study performed by The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in 2016, greater than eighty in step with cent of people in India aren't able to get entry to remedy because of a dearth of potential and right infrastructure. At present, there are not enough mental health specialists to bridge the care gap. Based on a WHO study, India has almost 0.29 psychiatrists and around 0.07 psychologists per 100,000 population, as compared to an average of 0.3-0.5 in low-mid earnings nations and 9-11 in high-earnings nations. Additionally, India has only 1.43 hospital beds to be had for intellectual fitness sufferers in step with 100,000 population, as compared to an average of 7 in low-earnings nations and 50 in high-earnings nations. Given the huge intellectual fitness burden in India, it's far essential to seriously compare the modern care fashions to be had and recognition on progressive transport fashions so as to assist bridge the extensive care gap. The mental health offerings in India have in large part observed a biomedical and institution-primarily based totally technique. This model suffers from a loss of infrastructure and does now no longer account for the function of sociocultural elements in care transport. Additionally, there are no clear pathways for the rehabilitation of intellectual fitness sufferers and maximum sufferers grow to be in psychiatric institutions, not noted for more than one year. As a result, there may be a want to cope with gaps in potential by overhauling the modern care transport version. This may be accomplished by leveraging community-primarily based totally care models, non-specialist programs, and technology-primarily based totally interventions. These fashions may be included with traditional, institution-primarily based totally primary healthcare centers to strengthen intellectual healthcare transport.

The community-primarily based totally version can act as a powerful care transport mechanism in India's context to increase the coverage of mental health offerings. The model has obtained big recognition from the authorities via its DMHP (District mental health program) and NMHP (National mental health program) and is being leveraged with the aid of using more than one NGO and organization as their number one care delivery model. To successfully adopt those answers, there may be a want to force sustained investment from both, public and private players. Evidence-primarily based totally studies might be employed to measure the efficacy of those fashions and generate dependable information to help the investment of those models. These innovative solutions to care transport have the capability to be scaled up, tailored as per need, and be included with the primary healthcare system. Through an integrated technique, there may be the capability to make mental healthcare affordable and reachable to all and bridge the care gap.

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