Bhubaneswar: The state Health and Family Welfare Department Friday signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with two premier mental health institutes from the country to boost mental healthcare services in the state.
The MoUs have been signed with the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), AIIMS to avail their assistance for boosting the mental healthcare services here. The MoUs were signed in the presence of state Health Minister Pratap Jena.
The minister said, “We look forward to improve mental health services further by signing these two MoUs. The initiative will be a way forward for our state in mental healthcare and de-addiction care. Though the National Mental Health Programme has been implemented in the state since 2003-04, expansion of the programme to all the 30 districts has been a challenge due to inadequate budget from the Centre.”
Under the MoU with NIMHANS, the Bangalore-based institute will provide tele mentoring and capacity building of medical officers in the state-based hospitals to provide mental treatment for case management of mental ailment and basic emergency psychiatric care as well as follow-up care at healthcare facilities.
Under MoU with NDDTC, AIIMS the personnel involved in mental treatment would be given training and hand-holding support on fixed days in collaboration with the organisation for case management through tele-medicine based services. Centre of Excellence, Mental Health Institute, SCB, Cuttack, will be developed as regional hub for supportive supervision and care of field functionaries during their learning process. By this initiation mental health care can be provided at the grass root level to the community by the specialists at NIMHANS. The de-addication centres at the three medical colleges and other government hospitals will also be updated under the MoUs.
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