To address the mental health problems in the country, the Government of India has been making continuous efforts to increase the number of mental healthcare professionals.

The Government of India is implementing the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) in the country. 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/institutions to strengthen 47 PG Departments in mental health specialties.

The District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) component of the NMHP has been sanctioned for implementation in 767 districts for which support is provided to States/UTs through the National Health Mission. One of the components of DMHP is to provide training to specialist and non-specialist cadres such as Medical Officers, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Nurses.

The Government is also taking steps to strengthen mental healthcare services at the primary healthcare level. The Government has upgraded more than 1.73 lakh Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Mental health services have been added to the packages of services under Comprehensive Primary Health Care provided at these Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Operational guidelines and training manuals for various cadres on Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders (MNS) at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs have been released under the ambit of Ayushman Bharat.

The Government is also augmenting the availability of manpower to deliver mental healthcare services in the underserved areas of the country by providing online training courses to various categories of general healthcare medical and para-medical professionals through the Digital Academies, established since 2018, at the 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. The total number of professionals trained under Digital Academies are 42,488.

Also, 66 institutions/universities are offering M.Phil Clinical Psychology course. The Council has launched B.Sc. Clinical Psychology (Hons.) course from the academic session 2024- 25 and granted approval to 19 universities to offer this course for developing more professionals in clinical psychology.

Besides the above, the Government has launched a “National Tele Mental Health Programme” on 10^th October 2022, to further improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services in the country. As of 22^nd November 2024, 36 States/ UTs have set up 53 Tele MANAS Cells and have started Tele mental health services.  More than 15,95,000 calls have been handled on the helpline number.

The Government has also launched the Tele MANAS Mobile Application on the occasion of World Mental Health Day - October 10, 2024. Tele-MANAS Mobile Application is a comprehensive mobile platform that has been developed to provide support for mental health issues ranging from well-being to mental disorders.

The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Sh. Prataprao Jadhav stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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