Research Paper Title

Taluk Mental Health Program: The new kid on the block?

Background

This article highlights the platform and framework for the new public mental health initiative, the Taluk Mental Health Programme (TMHP), rolled out by the Government of India, as part of the expansion of the District Mental Health Programme.

In this initial phase, TMHP has been approved for ten taluks of Karnataka state.

In the authors’ collective opinion, few of the initiatives in the country could be considered as foundations for conceptualising the TMHP:

• Research programmes and projects in the community;
• Community intervention programmes running in two taluks of Karnataka since the past one and a half decade (Thirthahalli and Turuvekere taluks of Karnataka); and
• The Primary Care Psychiatry Programme of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences.

The article briefly describes the above initiatives and ends with further suggestions to scale up TMHP.

Reference

Manjunatha, N., Kumar, C.N., Chander, K.R., Sadh, K., Gowda, G.S., Vinay, B., Shashidhara, H.N., Parthasarathy, R., Rao, G.N., Math, S.B. & Thirthalli, J. (2019) Taluk Mental Health Program: The new kid on the block? Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 61(6), pp.635-639. doi: 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_343_19.