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Collaboration in mental health programmes need and scope in India
Abstract
The paper reviews the broad needs of the mental health area in the Indian context and considers the role of collaborative ventures. The areas for collaboration in the training, service, research and inclusion of mental health components in psychosocial programmes are considered. In addition the need for dissemination of information and the methods of collaboration are presented for consideration by the group. The problems of collaborative ventures in terms of input, administration and cooperation are highlighted. It can be said that in view of the magnitude of the problem within the limitations of funds, facilities and personnel, collaborative efforts can be expected to yield quicker results, comparable models and data, and greater harmony to the mental health programmes in the country. A plea is made for serious consideration and application of collaborative methods in the various priority areas.
This article is the first comprehensive cultural critique of India's official community mental health policy and program. Data are based on a literature review of published papers, conference proceedings, analyses of official policy and popular media, interviews with key Indian mental health professionals, and fieldwork in Kanpur district, Uttar Pradesh (2004-2006). The authors demonstrate how three influences have shaped community psychiatry in India: a cultural asymmetry between health professionals and the wider society, psychiatry's search for both professional and social legitimacy, and WHO policies that have provided the overall direction to the development of services. Taken together, the consequences are that rural community voices have been edited out. The authors hypothesize that community psychiatry in India is a bureaucratic and culturally incongruent endeavor that increases the divide between psychiatry and local rural communities. Such a claim requires sustained ethnographic fieldwork to reveal the dynamics of the gap between community and professional experiences. The development of culturally sensitive psychiatric theory and clinical services is essential to improve the mental health of rural citizens who place their trust in India's biomedical network.
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