Express News Service
NEW DELHI: As India faces an acute shortage and disproportionate distribution of psychiatrists, the Union Health Ministry plans to rope in ASHAs, midwives, and other community health workers in the tele-mental health programme so that they can help in identifying early symptoms of mental health problems in people living in rural and remote areas.
The need for roping in these frontline workers was felt as the government plans to roll out the national tele-mental health program by October 10 this year, the occasion of the World Mental Health Day. Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Health Mission, Vikas Sheel, said, “We will have to take the leverage on the strengths of ASHAs. We will have to train them to help the community to identify early the symptoms of any mental health problems.” Sheel said the need to include ASHAs and others was felt as India faces a “huge shortage of psychiatrists and specialists”
According to Dr N N Raju, president, Indian Psychiatric Society, apart from shortage, there is an unequal distribution of psychiatrists. “In south India, the number of psychiatrists is reasonably good, but in the rest of the country the ratio is 1 in 15,000. There are no psychiatrists in rural areas,” he told this newspaper.
