‘Doctors handling persons with mental illness need training’

Experts lay stress on home-like atmosphere for patients

Chennai: 17/09/2017, For City: N. Ram Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd and Dr J. Radhakrishnan Health Secretary, Govt of Tamilnadu Participating in The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health and Sundram Fasteners Ltd, Launch of The BALM - Sundaram Fasteners Chennai for Research and Social in Mental Health function at Sannadhi St, Thiruvidanthai Panchayat Near Kovalam Village, ECR. Photo: M. Karunakaran Chennai: 17/09/2017, For City: N. Ram Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd and Dr J. Radhakrishnan Health Secretary, Govt of Tamilnadu Participating in The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health and Sundram Fasteners Ltd, Launch of The BALM - Sundaram Fasteners Chennai for Research and Social in Mental Health function at Sannadhi St, Thiruvidanthai Panchayat Near Kovalam Village, ECR. Photo: M. Karunakaran -

Indian Council for Medical Research Director General Soumya Swaminathan on Sunday stressed the need for having a structured programme for practising doctors in handling patients with mental illnesses.

“I think there is a great need to train doctors who pass out of medical colleges. They lack the capacity to work with such patients,” she said at a panel discussion on ‘Transforming mental health care in India: Innovations and Prospects’ organised at The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) at Thiruvidanthai off the ECR.

Sanjeev Jain, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health And Neurosciences, said there was a need to train psychiatrists on local and national realities.

Prof. Tom Burns of the University of Oxford, said he and his students always met patients in their home settings.

“There is no OP in our clinics, for it is easier for us to draw out patients in their homes,” he said.

‘Grim situation’

Kasturi and Sons Ltd, chairman N. Ram, who moderated the discussion, said that the state of mental health in the country was quite grim. He sought to know whether the mental health policy and the Act would make a difference to a very challenging and difficult situation.

Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan indicated that the government would work with the Banyan to ensure that persons with long-term needs from the mental hospital could transition into community-based settings or return home.

Earlier, The BALM and Sundaram Fasteners Centre for Research and Social Action in Mental Health was inaugurated with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between two organisations.

The Banyan founder Vandana Gopikumar hoped that a time would come when women after recovery could be sent back to their homes or a place they can call their own.

Keshav Desiraju, former Union Health Secretary; Arathi Krishna, Joint Managing Director, Sundaram Fasteners Limited; Alok Sarin, consultant psychiatrist, Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research; S. Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Nachiket Mor, Country Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took part in the discussion.