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Identification of Psychiatric Disorders by Rural Grass-Root Health Workers: Case Series & Implications for the National Mental Health Program of India

Psychiatric Quarterly volume 92, pages 389–395 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANMs) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are well suited to cater to the mental health needs of the communities. Integrating primary mental health care into the general healthcare is one of the important objectives of the District Mental Health Program (DMHP) to reduce the treatment gap. As a part of an ICMR funded trial to evaluate the effectiveness of NIMHANS-ECHO blended training program, the ASHAs and ANMs were trained to identify and refer cases from the community. We aim to describe a series of cases identified by those workers from the community, highlighting their importance in our health care system.

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Acknowledgements

The researchers would like to thank the patients and their respective families, the health care professionals of the state of Karnataka including the health administrators, DMHP teams, Primary care doctors, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, Auxiliary Nurse midwives (ANMs) for their contribution in effective implementation of the trial. This work is supported by the Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR) under Capacity Building Projects for National Mental Health Program, ICMR-NMHP. We thank Dr. Soumya Swaminathan (then Secretary, Dept. of Health Research, DHR), Dr. Balram Bhargav (current Secretary DHR), Prof. V.L. Nimgaonkar, Prof. Smita N. Deshpande, Dr. Ravinder Singh and Dr. Harpreet Singh. We thank the faculty of ‘Cross-Fertilized Research Training for New Investigators in India and Egypt’ (D43 TW009114, HMSC File No. Indo-Foreign/35/M/2012-NCD-1, funded by Fogarty International Centre, NIH). We are also thankful to National Coordinating Unit of ICMR for NMHP Projects for their constant support and guidance. We thank Data Management Unit of ICMR for designing the database. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH or ICMR. NIH and ICMR had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Funding

Indian Council of Medical Research vide sanction letter no.5/4–4/151/M/2017/NCD-1.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029, India

    Ferose Azeez Ibrahim, Lakshmi Nirisha, Malathesh Barikar, Channaveerachari Naveen Kumar, Prabhat Kumar Chand, Narayana Manjunatha, Suresh Bada Math & Jagadisha Thirthalli

  2. Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Adarsha Alur Manjappa & Rajani Parthasarathy

  3. Department of Psychiatric Social Work, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029, India

    Shanivaram Reddy

  4. The ECHO Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Sanjeev Arora

Authors
  1. Ferose Azeez Ibrahim
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  2. Lakshmi Nirisha
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  3. Malathesh Barikar
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  4. Channaveerachari Naveen Kumar
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  5. Prabhat Kumar Chand
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  6. Narayana Manjunatha
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  7. Suresh Bada Math
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  8. Jagadisha Thirthalli
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  9. Adarsha Alur Manjappa
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  10. Rajani Parthasarathy
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  11. Shanivaram Reddy
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  12. Sanjeev Arora
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Channaveerachari Naveen Kumar.

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Conflict of Interest: None.

Research Involving Human Participants and Consent

Yes. Approval obtained from Institute Ethics committee and informed consent obtained from patients.

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Ibrahim, F.A., Nirisha, L., Barikar, M. et al. Identification of Psychiatric Disorders by Rural Grass-Root Health Workers: Case Series & Implications for the National Mental Health Program of India. Psychiatr Q 92, 389–395 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-020-09807-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-020-09807-5

Keywords

  • Treatment gap
  • Community mental healthcare
  • Grass root health workers
  • Digitally driven training program