Nodal centre for the National Tele-Mental Health programme: the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences at Bengaluru
Background
A Press Information Bureau release of the Ministry of Finance records that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech on Budget 2022-23, announced the launch of a National Tele-Mental health programme with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore being its nodal centre.
The same release states that the programme will include 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, and that the International Institute of Information Technology- Bangalore (IIITB) will provide the necessary technological support.
At the commemoration of the golden jubilee celebrations of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) at Bengaluru on January 3, 2025, the President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, said that the Bellary model of community-based mental healthcare has made history.
She said that the Tele MANAS platform uses technology to reach out to those in need.
Among the institute's initiatives named in that release are Tele MANAS, to facilitate counselling anywhere anytime, and the SAMVAAD platform to address child and adolescent mental health problems.
In plain words
NIMHANS National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences — The Bengaluru institute named as the nodal centre of the National Tele-Mental Health programme.
Tele MANAS Tele MANAS — The platform the release describes as using technology to reach out to those in need, and as facilitating counselling anywhere anytime.
SAMVAAD SAMVAAD — The institute's platform to address child and adolescent mental health problems.
IIITB International Institute of Information Technology- Bangalore — The Bangalore institution named to provide the necessary technological support for the programme.