Latest news with #IndianPsychiatricSociety
Hindustan Times
18 hours ago
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Empowering youth is key to tackling teen pregnancy
A mental health change's being led by LGBTQIA+ communities {"top_p":0.95,"frequency_penalty":0,"max_tokens":4000,"presence_penalty":0,"temperature":0.7,"messages":[{"role":"system","content":"As an editor of a news outlet, can you share a summary of this article not more than 60 words.: India's mental health crisis is quietly escalating. With a suicide rate of 12.6 per 100,000 people, ranked among the worst 50 in the world, the urgency is clear. Yet, our understanding remains limited. The last national mental health survey was conducted in 2015-16, revealing a ratio of just 0.75 psychiatrists per 1 lakh people—substantially lower than WHO's recommendation of 3. While mental health services have expanded in the years since, access remains deeply unequal. Stigma continues to cast a long shadow: Unlike physical health, seeking mental health care is still met with silence, shame, and social discomfort. For LGBTQIA+ communities, the gaps are starker. Stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion compound mental health distress—particularly for queer and trans youth. Though they face some of the harshest realities, they remain largely absent from mainstream solutions. This exclusion is rooted in a long history of pathologisation. Until 1973, the American Psychological Association classified homosexuality as a mental illness. In India, the Indian Psychiatric Society only formally rejected this framing in 2018. The legacy of this stigma endures. There remains a scarcity of queer-affirmative mental health professionals, often leaving LGBTQIA+ individuals vulnerable to retraumatisation or bias when they seek care. The mental health burden among LGBTQIA+ communities in India is disproportionately high and deeply shaped by structural barriers. Studies consistently show elevated rates of depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicide – pointing to a public health crisis rooted in exclusion and neglect. Discrimination from families, service providers, and institutions compounds this distress. For queer and trans youth, rejection and violence often begin at home. A 2018 study by the National Human Rights Commission found that only 2% of trans people in India live with their parents. Even within mental health systems, spaces meant to offer care, bias persists, with practices like conversion therapy still reported. In the absence of safe and affirming support, many LGBTQIA+ individuals are left to navigate distress alone, often in environments that invisibilise their identities and experiences. With formal mental health services often limited in their reach and inclusivity, community-led responses are stepping up to provide vital support. Across the globe, LGBTQIA+ movements have long drawn strength from networks of mutual care, and India is no exception. A growing ecosystem of queer-led grassroots non-profits is offering low-cost, accessible, and queer-affirming mental health solutions. From peer helplines and safe spaces to training programmes for care providers, these initiatives center lived experience and cultural relevance. Their work addresses critical gaps in the system and offers a model for how community expertise can work alongside formal structures to build more inclusive and responsive ecosystems of care. On the ground, care is local, immediate and expansive. Non-profits like Ya All in the Northeast and Vikalp in rural Gujarat are building vital community ecosystems in underserved geographies, providing queer and trans youth essential support where few alternatives exist. Organizations like Sappho for Equality in Kolkata and Humsafar Trust in Mumbai began as small community groups, and have since grown into hubs for mental healthcare, community support, and research and capacity-building. In contexts where state and private care remain inadequate or inaccessible, these initiatives demonstrate how community-rooted approaches can grow and scale even in resource-constrained settings. This growing ecosystem of community-led care underscores a critical need for greater support, one that Indian philanthropy is beginning to respond to. Philanthropic foundations such as the Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI), Azim Premji Foundation, and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies have recognised mental health as a critical area of investment. MHI, a first-mover in queer affirming mental health, has trained over 500 mental health professionals through its Queer Affirmative Counselling Practices (QACP) programme and supported grassroots organizations through sustained and flexible grantmaking. Newer initiatives like the Pride Fund India are helping expand the ecosystem, spotlighting urgent links between mental health and LGBTQIA+ equity. Sustaining this momentum will require a shift in mindset. Queer mental health work is long-term, iterative, and not easily captured in short-term metrics, yet it is foundational to building an inclusive and empathetic India. Domestic funders are uniquely positioned to invest in community-rooted, context-specific models of care. At the intersection of mental health and LGBTQIA+ inclusion, philanthropy has an important role to play in challenging marginalisation and supporting long-overdue systems change. Doing so will require flexible funding, trust in local leadership, and meaningful partnerships with communities as co-creators of solutions. Today, more than half the non-profits advancing LGBTQIA+ equity in India are led by the communities they serve. Forged in resistance and sustained by care, these organisations carry histories, respond to urgent needs, and create new futures. A decade of policy gains and growing public visibility has opened new windows of opportunity, but without sustained investment, they risk closing. Philanthropic investment in queer-affirming mental health offers a pathway toward a more dignified future—one where queer and trans communities are not only supported, but empowered to shape the very systems that once excluded them. With sustained support, community-rooted responses can move from survival to stability—deepening, growing, and enduring as drivers of lasting change. This article is authored by Radhika Piramal, executive vice chairperson, VIP Industries Ltd and Pratyaksha Jha, researcher and strategist, Dasra."}]}
Time of India
2 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
60-day deadline: Punjab races against time to enforce mental healthcare law after HC rap
Chandigarh: After an eight-year delay, Punjab govt has finally accelerated efforts to implement Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, following stern directions from the Punjab and Haryana high court. The move comes as a long overdue response to mounting pressure from legal, medical, and civil society quarters over the lack of action on the progressive mental health legislation. The high court recently expressed concern over the non-implementation of the act, instructing Punjab to notify all rules within 60 days and ensure full compliance with the statute's mandatory provisions. Punjab set up a state mental health authority (SMHA) in 2018 and notified the State Mental Healthcare (Standards of Care) Rules in 2019, but effective enforcement remains conspicuously absent. The act mandates that every person has the right to access mental healthcare and treatment from government-run or funded services. These services must be affordable, of good quality, and available without discrimination. In a renewed push, the state has now begun drafting revised rules that reframe drug addiction as a mental health condition rather than a criminal offence — marking a significant shift from punitive to rehabilitative care. These reforms aim to guarantee patient rights, provide ethical and standardised treatment, and promote recovery with dignity. Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh stated that efforts are being made towards enforcement of the act. "A draft is ready, and we are consulting with stakeholders. The focus is on treating drug addiction as a health issue, not a criminal one," he said. Health experts, including members of the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), have long criticised the current de-addiction model in the state as outdated and counterproductive. In recent submissions, IPS members underscored the urgent need for evidence-based treatments, such as the routine use of buprenorphine, and insisted that addiction services be governed strictly under the Mental Healthcare Act, not the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The society has called for the empowerment of mental health review boards to oversee psychiatric care and ensure due process in any disciplinary matters concerning psychiatrists. These boards, they argue, are essential to upholding the rights-based framework of the act. Echoing these concerns, the Association of Psychiatrists has urged the govt to align all de-addiction protocols with the act, arguing that comprehensive and humane care is impossible without legislative compliance. Court Seeks Report In the last court hearing, petitioner Aditya Vikram Rametra submitted a detailed set of points aimed at realising the objectives of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. These include the provision of basic and emergency mental healthcare at all community health centres, notification of an essential drug list, budgetary allocations for implementation, establishment of halfway homes and group homes, sensitisation and training for police officers and public officials, emergency mental health training for jail and public healthcare medical staff, collaboration with higher education institutions for training and awareness programmes, and online registration of mental health establishments. The court directed the state to consider these points seriously and submit a comprehensive status report by the next hearing on July 24.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Health
- Hindustan Times
A mental health change's being led by LGBTQIA+ communities
India's mental health crisis is quietly escalating. With a suicide rate of 12.6 per 100,000 people, ranked among the worst 50 in the world, the urgency is clear. Yet, our understanding remains limited. The last national mental health survey was conducted in 2015-16, revealing a ratio of just 0.75 psychiatrists per 1 lakh people—substantially lower than WHO's recommendation of 3. While mental health services have expanded in the years since, access remains deeply unequal. Stigma continues to cast a long shadow: Unlike physical health, seeking mental health care is still met with silence, shame, and social discomfort. For LGBTQIA+ communities, the gaps are starker. Stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion compound mental health distress—particularly for queer and trans youth. Though they face some of the harshest realities, they remain largely absent from mainstream solutions. This exclusion is rooted in a long history of pathologisation. Until 1973, the American Psychological Association classified homosexuality as a mental illness. In India, the Indian Psychiatric Society only formally rejected this framing in 2018. The legacy of this stigma endures. There remains a scarcity of queer-affirmative mental health professionals, often leaving LGBTQIA+ individuals vulnerable to retraumatisation or bias when they seek care. The mental health burden among LGBTQIA+ communities in India is disproportionately high and deeply shaped by structural barriers. Studies consistently show elevated rates of depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicide – pointing to a public health crisis rooted in exclusion and neglect. Discrimination from families, service providers, and institutions compounds this distress. For queer and trans youth, rejection and violence often begin at home. A 2018 study by the National Human Rights Commission found that only 2% of trans people in India live with their parents. Even within mental health systems, spaces meant to offer care, bias persists, with practices like conversion therapy still reported. In the absence of safe and affirming support, many LGBTQIA+ individuals are left to navigate distress alone, often in environments that invisibilise their identities and experiences. With formal mental health services often limited in their reach and inclusivity, community-led responses are stepping up to provide vital support. Across the globe, LGBTQIA+ movements have long drawn strength from networks of mutual care, and India is no exception. A growing ecosystem of queer-led grassroots non-profits is offering low-cost, accessible, and queer-affirming mental health solutions. From peer helplines and safe spaces to training programmes for care providers, these initiatives center lived experience and cultural relevance. Their work addresses critical gaps in the system and offers a model for how community expertise can work alongside formal structures to build more inclusive and responsive ecosystems of care. On the ground, care is local, immediate and expansive. Non-profits like Ya All in the Northeast and Vikalp in rural Gujarat are building vital community ecosystems in underserved geographies, providing queer and trans youth essential support where few alternatives exist. Organizations like Sappho for Equality in Kolkata and Humsafar Trust in Mumbai began as small community groups, and have since grown into hubs for mental healthcare, community support, and research and capacity-building. In contexts where state and private care remain inadequate or inaccessible, these initiatives demonstrate how community-rooted approaches can grow and scale even in resource-constrained settings. This growing ecosystem of community-led care underscores a critical need for greater support, one that Indian philanthropy is beginning to respond to. Philanthropic foundations such as the Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI), Azim Premji Foundation, and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies have recognised mental health as a critical area of investment. MHI, a first-mover in queer affirming mental health, has trained over 500 mental health professionals through its Queer Affirmative Counselling Practices (QACP) programme and supported grassroots organizations through sustained and flexible grantmaking. Newer initiatives like the Pride Fund India are helping expand the ecosystem, spotlighting urgent links between mental health and LGBTQIA+ equity. Sustaining this momentum will require a shift in mindset. Queer mental health work is long-term, iterative, and not easily captured in short-term metrics, yet it is foundational to building an inclusive and empathetic India. Domestic funders are uniquely positioned to invest in community-rooted, context-specific models of care. At the intersection of mental health and LGBTQIA+ inclusion, philanthropy has an important role to play in challenging marginalisation and supporting long-overdue systems change. Doing so will require flexible funding, trust in local leadership, and meaningful partnerships with communities as co-creators of solutions. Today, more than half the non-profits advancing LGBTQIA+ equity in India are led by the communities they serve. Forged in resistance and sustained by care, these organisations carry histories, respond to urgent needs, and create new futures. A decade of policy gains and growing public visibility has opened new windows of opportunity, but without sustained investment, they risk closing. Philanthropic investment in queer-affirming mental health offers a pathway toward a more dignified future—one where queer and trans communities are not only supported, but empowered to shape the very systems that once excluded them. With sustained support, community-rooted responses can move from survival to stability—deepening, growing, and enduring as drivers of lasting change. This article is authored by Radhika Piramal, executive vice chairperson, VIP Industries Ltd and Pratyaksha Jha, researcher and strategist, Dasra.
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Punjab battles drug crisis, Mental Healthcare Act yet to be fully enforced
Chandigarh: Even as Punjab has waged a high-decibel war on drugs through its flagship 'Yudh Nasheyan De Virudh' campaign, the state govt has fallen short on a crucial front — the full implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 (MHCA), which experts say is essential for effective, rights-based treatment of drug addiction. While the state made progress in expanding treatment access, with over 10 lakh individuals currently undergoing treatment at 529 govt-run outpatient opioid assisted treatment (OOAT) centres and 180 private centres, experts have flagged critical gaps in aligning de-addiction services with the provisions of the MHCA. Punjab initiated steps toward implementing the Act by establishing the State Mental Health Authority (SMHA) in 2018 and notifying the Punjab State Mental Healthcare (Standards of Care) Rules in 2019. However, full enforcement remains elusive. The Punjab and Haryana high court earlier this year had directed the state to comply with all the mandatory provisions of the MHCA, pointing to the gaps in execution. The Act, once fully implemented, ensures that drug addiction is treated as a mental health issue — not a criminal one. It promotes care over punishment, dignity over stigma, and sustainable recovery over temporary detox, while safeguarding patient rights and ensuring standardised, ethical treatment practices. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No dark spots, 10 years younger! Just take this from Guardian URUHIME MOMOKO Learn More Undo The Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) wrote to Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh, urging the govt to expedite the MHCA implementation across the state. The IPS lauded the intent behind 'Yudh Nasheyan De Virudh', calling it a timely and sensitive response to Punjab's worsening substance abuse crisis. The society also welcomed the inclusion of private sector psychiatrists in the campaign, labelling it a much-needed step toward inclusive public health reform. The Indian Psychiatric Society members, however, expressed concern over the current treatment protocols in the state, calling these "flawed and a hindrance" in treatment. They stressed that all matters regarding the treatment of addiction had to be monitored under the provision of the MHCA and not under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. They also called for the routine use of evidence-based medications such as buprenorphine, in line with international standards, to ensure effective outcomes. The IPS recommended that during inspections of de-addiction centres or psychiatric facilities, any concerns involving psychiatrists should be referred to the district or state mental health review boards constituted under the MHCA. Disciplinary action, they said, should follow only after recommendations from these statutory bodies. A senior health department official said efforts were underway to implement the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 in its entirety, and the enforcement process was expected to be completed soon. Despite repeated attempts, health minister Dr Balbir Singh could not be reached for comments. Health Department Working On Modalities (BOX) Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh has announced that private psychiatrists would be permitted to dispense buprenorphine and naloxone to patients undergoing treatment for substance abuse. The department has started working on the modalities. MSID:: 121271378 413 |
