New Delhi, 28 Jan 2005
The World Health Organisation’s regional office is providing technical assistance to Uttaranchal and areas in Maldives, Myanmar and Indonesia to assess and bridge the gap in mental health services.
“The issues of adolescent well-being, alcohol and psychosis and epilepsy are being addressed by the programme,” Dr Vijay Chandara from the WHO told reporters here today.
Under the programme, the analysis of mental health situation, followed by development of strategies would be done, he said.
Reassessment of the mental health gap would be done after two years, he said adding the programme is likely to be reflected in the Mental Health Policy that Uttaranchal Government comes out with.
The programme aims to reduce the mental health gap by 10 per cent per year in these areas, Chandra said adding the strategy was to draw patients to mental health services by training village workers in identifying the problems and assisting patients to come for help.
Dr Benedetto Saraceno, Director, Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence at WHO’s headquarter in Geneva said that mental helath servcies were inadequate in India and other parts of South Asia.
It led many people to go for unscientific restrictive care institutions in India, he said adding WHO was against such practices. PTI
News Source: http://news.newkerala.com
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