Implementing National Mental Health Program: Local leaders' perspectives and lessons for national action.

The article is about a set of leadership programs on 'mental health leadership under NMHP' that was completed for 161 participants who are the district level health authorities and service providers (psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and social workers) by the Community Psychiatry Unit of the Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru. The overarching aim of these programs was to provide an impetus to mental health leadership at district levels that could enable them to upscale public mental healthcare delivery. Upon completion of the program, 109 participants provided a feedback on the content of the program. Majority (98 %) were satisfied with the format of the program in which it was conducted and felt that their expectations were either partially or completely satisfied with appropriate content (93 %). The health authorities (43 %) gained better insights into the magnitude of mental health concerns and agreed that mental health service delivery should scale up. The service providers (17 %) felt the need to upgrade their skills in specialty areas of psychiatry in order to gear up for comprehensive mental health care delivery. Finally, the authors argue that such local level learnings should drive the policy making at the national level.

The prevalence and its correlates of somatization disorder at a quaternary mental health centre.

INTRODUCTION: Somatization Disorder (SD) is known to cause disability and impact the quality of life due to psychological and somatic distress. Though it is a Common Mental Disorder (CMD), the disorder tends to visit all levels of health care, among which prevalence of SD at tertiary care is 10.1%. AIMS: To estimate current prevalence and its correlates of socio-clinical factors in SD at a quaternary mental health centre (QMHC). METHODS: Total of 422 adult subjects were selected through systematic random sampling at first contact psychiatry outpatient clinic. Subjects were interviewed with Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus version 5.0.0, Clinical Global Impression Severity Scale and Sheehan Disability Scale. RESULTS: Current prevalence of SD was 5%. Significant correlates are observed with median age of 40.5 years, female, married, <5 years of education, monthly income of <₹ 10,357(85.5%) and lower socioeconomic status (75%). DISCUSSION: There is high prevalence of SD even at QMHC. The higher prevalence among adult population in this setup reflect the impairment of working population which invariably impact on national economy. CONCLUSION: Poverty continues to be a major contributing factor to SD causing double impact on the economy by affecting the working population the most.

Taluk Mental Health Program: The new kid on the block?

This article highlights the platform and framework for the new public mental health initiative, the Taluk Mental Health Program (TMHP), rolled out by the Government of India, as part of the expansion of the District Mental Health Program. In this initial phase, TMHP has been approved for ten taluks of Karnataka state. In the authors' collective opinion, few of the initiatives in the country could be considered as foundations for conceptualizing the TMHP (a) research programs and projects in the community, (b) community intervention programs running in two taluks of Karnataka since the past one and a half decade (Thirthahalli and Turuvekere taluks of Karnataka), and the (c) Primary Care Psychiatry Program of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. The article briefly describes the above initiatives and ends with further suggestions to scale up TMHP.