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J&K’s mental healthcare now a video call away

The facility will ease access to trained professionals in J&K, where mental health parameters and substance addiction demand intensive efforts
01:14 AM Jan 10, 2025 IST | ZEHRU NISSA
j k’s mental healthcare now a video call away
J&K’s mental healthcare now a video call away___Representational image
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Srinagar, Jan 9: Breaking down walls in mental healthcare access, a groundbreaking online video consultation service, revolutionising psychiatric care in J&K, was launched by the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) on Thursday.

The facility will ease access to trained professionals in J&K, where mental health parameters and substance addiction demand intensive efforts.

The initiative is part of the Tele Mental Health and Networking across States (Tele-Manas).

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The video consultation facility has been equipped with prescription generation.

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The prescriptions will enable people suffering from mental health issues to seek and avail the professional treatment.

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People can dial 14416 between 10 am to 2 pm from Monday to Friday.

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The audio consultations are available round-the-clock.

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The experts available on video consultation are specialists in child psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, de-addiction, geriatric psychiatry, sleep medicine, mood disorders, emergency psychiatry, and women’s mental health.

As one of the few institutions in the country’s public sector to provide such advanced telepsychiatry services, IMHANS is dismantling long-standing barriers to mental health support, particularly for those in remote or underserved regions.

Many private players have forayed into the video-consultation category in the big cities, a service that is often expensive.

“Our service is entirely free, accessible to anyone in J&K,” Prof Arshid Hussain from IMHANS said.

He said there was inequitable distribution of psychiatrists in J&K, and most were available in capital cities.

“For a person living in Rajouri or Kargil or Karnah, imagine how far a mental health facility in Srinagar is,” Prof Hussain said.

He said that in winter months, mental health services become inaccessible to many people due to road connectivity issues.

“Only recently we had a pregnant woman who was under our treatment and had to travel in her ninth month for a follow-up,” Prof Hussain said.

Mental health remains a critical issue globally, and in India, challenges like stigma, low awareness, a high treatment gap (83 percent), and a severe shortage of professionals amplify the problem.

India, with only 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 people compared to the WHO-recommended 3, faces immense pressure, especially in rural areas.

Despite efforts like the National Mental Health Programme and scaling up psychiatric training, mental illness remains under-addressed, with only 10 percent of affected individuals in regions like Kashmir and Jammu availing services.

To bridge this gap, the Government of India launched the National Tele-Mental Health Program (NTMHP), including initiatives like Tele-MANAS, which provides round-the-clock free audio telepsychiatry services through call centres and mobile apps.

In J&K, a Tele-MANAS centre established at GMC Srinagar has been a game-changer, receiving over 73,801 calls since November 2022, with thousands of crisis interventions for self-harm cases.

The service’s three-tier system involves psychologists for counselling, psychiatrists for acute cases, and referrals to nearby centres when necessary.

Offering services in local languages like Kashmiri and Urdu, Tele-MANAS is cost-effective, widely accepted, and lifesaving, addressing the region’s historically neglected mental health needs and showcasing the potential of telepsychiatry in bridging the treatment gap.

This innovative mental health outpatient department (OPD) offers video consultations and digital prescription generation, setting a new benchmark for accessibility in government healthcare.

This trailblazing initiative represents a transformative step forward, redefining how mental health services are delivered and ensuring that no one is left behind.