Innovations in Social Psychiatry across the World – India

Abstract

India is a large country with a huge population, high mental illness burden, and a substantive treatment gap, with inadequate infrastructure, human resources, and funding related to mental health care. Given this challenging scenario, innovations utilizing social psychiatric principles have come from the government sector, nongovernmental organizations, and like-minded professional associations. The focus has been on integrating mental health care with primary health care, reducing stigma, early detection, enhancing access to affordable care, continuity of care, and promoting recovery and social integration. Digital technology is being increasingly explored to partly further these goals. Although there have been appreciable improvements, there is a long way to go!