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State Training and Research Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences

STRIMHANS
This report is an executive summary on State Training and Research Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (STRIMHANS).

Chapter 1
In India, there is a tremendous gap between the needs of mental health care and the availability of hospital beds and human resources. While reviewing the development of mental health services in Maharashtra and the country this chapter highlights the repeatedly ignored recommendations made by several health committees regarding manpower development.

Chapter 2
It is estimated that 10 to 20 persons per thousand of the general population require mental health care and an additional 20 to 60 persons per thousand require attention from mental health experts. The total availability of hospital beds for mental health care is only 1/30th of the beds per thousand population which has improved from 1/40th bed per thousand in 1946. In Maharashtra, the ratio works out to 1/10th beds per thousand population, which is three times better than the country’s average though highly inadequate compared to the need.

In addition to the 5,830 government hospital beds, there are 1,279 beds in municipal and private hospitals. The concentration of available facilities is only in Mumbai, Thane and Pune regions followed by Nagpur, Ratnagiri and Sholapur. As against the present need for 2,633 trained personnel required for manning the existing government beds, only 107 are available in the state. The requirement is going to increase to 2,691 in the next five years and 2,702 at the end of 10 years to man fully the presently available bed strength. The cases for adding to trained manpower in the state to take care of the existing hospital bed capacity is forcefully established showing the need to train nearly 2,500 persons to meet immediate need of existing hospitals. It must be noted that existing beds themselves have been catering to only 1 per cent of the actual needs.

Chapter 3
This chapter records the inadequate implementation of National Mental Health Program (NMHP) in Maharashtra. It also highlights the fact that NMHP at best is a temporary arrangement to meet the exigency and has to be replaced by an ongoing organizational arrangement for developing professional personnel to man the mental health services in the state.

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