In the coming months the Indian Council of Medical Research will come up with a programme for mental health research.
Sowmya Swaminathan, director general of the Council, who inaugurated the three-day international conference on schizophrenia (ICONS) here on Thursday said psychiatrists and all those who work with people with mental illnesses would be called up on to partner in the effort.
Implementation research, which involves research from the point of delivery of care, she explained, be it in the urban or rural setting, is the need of the hour. One of the issues that the Council wants to address is suicide as it is the number one cause of death among people in the 15 to 29 year age group, she said. “We will call all NGOs and academic institutions to apply and the Indian Psychiatric Association to be a partner with the government hospitals. The government needs help to deliver care,” with its existing infrastructure and human resources, Dr. Sowmya said, urging the psychiatric associations and psychiatrists to give the Council “three or four research priorities.” Research had also shown that neuropsychiatric illnesses hurt more people in the lower socioeconomic strata as they did not have access to treatment and care.
President of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) R. Seshasayee said the organisation had introduced a fellowship to work in the Department of Rehabilitation at SCARF and an oration during the biennial ICONS in the name of its founder Saradha Menon. SCARF director R. Thara made a moving presentation on Dr. Menon. Senior psychiatrists Dinesh Bhugra, Roy Abraham Kallivayalil and G. Prasad Rao, felicitated.
