Meghalaya Announces Draft Mental Health and Social Care Policy

Shillong: On the occasion of World Mental Health Day on October 10, the Meghalaya government announced the state’s “first-ever State Mental Health and Social Care Policy”.

The policy aims to promote overall mental health and well-being and facilitate appropriate access and care pathways for common and severe mental health concerns.
The draft policy is being made available to the general public for their information and can be accessed at https://meghealth.gov.in/documents.html and http://nhmmeghalaya.nic.in/programmes. /NMHP/nmhp.html for a period of 15 days.

The draft mental health policy is the result of extensive research, situational analysis in the state context, and focus group discussions conducted by key stakeholders involved in the drafting process.
The draft policy is placed in public domain for information of all and also to find out some important missing elements, if any, in the policy document.

Members of civil society are requested to send their comments on the draft policy to healthdeptt502@gmail.com.

These proposals will then be reviewed before the formal launch of the final Mental Health and Social Care Policy for Meghalaya.
State Health Minister James PK Sangma while officially announcing the draft policy said that universal access to mental health care is an important goal of the state government and added that by announcing the draft policy the state has taken a step forward in the health sector. A major milestone has been achieved.
He also informed that Meghalaya is the first state in Northeast India to have its own mental health policy.

“The issue of mental health has been a taboo subject and largely ignored because of the stigma associated with it. And over the last three years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health has slowly become a silent epidemic. has emerged as a disease that affects each and every one of us and manifests itself in different forms. This calls for an urgent need for a dedicated policy to address mental health issues,” he said.
He highlighted the salient features of the State Mental Health and Social Care Policy and urged the civil society members to give their feedback and recommendations on the draft policy.

The minister further informed that a core committee and a sub-committee were formed to guide the process of drafting a state mental health policy to address the issues within the state.
“We partnered with various stakeholders and under the state capacity building framework, through a Problem Driven Iterative Adaptive (PDIA) approach, we identified the problem to all relevant departments and agencies and added under their mutual support for solutions,” said Sangma. .
Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, added that the policy aims to provide universal access to mental health care by increasing understanding of mental health and strengthening leadership at all levels in the mental health sector. .

Emphasizing the importance of Mental Health Day, Kumar said that it is an opportunity to create awareness among people about mental illnesses and remove misconceptions associated with them.
He said that the policy is a comprehensive approach aimed at not only providing care but also addressing socio-economic factors affecting mental health while addressing mental health challenges within the state and addressing them. Creating viable conditions to prevent

He added that removing the stigma attached to mental health is very important and hence the policy aims to create awareness and leadership at the community level through Village Health Councils (VHCs) as well as all institutions. 460 sub-centres across the state, as they can be the first point of screening and identification of public health problems.

He said that early diagnosis, screening, and comprehensive access to care will be the highlights of the state’s mental health policy.
The event saw the participation of core committee members of the State Mental Health Committee including Principal Health Secretary Sampath Kumar. RM Karba, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department; Joram Beda, Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare; and Ram Kumar, MD-NHM along with other state officials.