National Mental Health Programme- Union Budget 2022-23

It took us a pandemic to get here, but mental health finally got its rare mention in the annual budget.

In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19?crisis, which has been negatively affecting the mental health of people of all age groups, the government has announced plans to launch a tele mental health program in the 2022 budget. The program is aimed at bridging the gap between the increasing mental health issues in the population, and their access to mental healthcare. It will provide free quality mental health services 24x7 to all. For this, a network of 23 tele mental health centres will be established with NIMHANS as the nodal centre, and the technical support will be provided by IIIT Bangalore. While this step is most welcome, and a sign of progress there is only so much it can do while our country is going through a sort of mental health crisis. According to an ICMR study in 2019, one out of seven persons in India suffers from mental disorders of varying severity. In this scenario, we need a much stronger mental health infrastructure in the country.But we can see this initiative in a positive light. This is an acknowledgement of the importance of mental health in a country where these issues have been treated as a taboo topic for years. And this can open up so many doors for further progress in the right direction.

Do you think this program would be effective? What other measures can be taken to make mental healthcare accessible?