Implementing National Mental Health Program: Local leaders' perspectives and lessons for national action

The article is about a set of leadership programs on 'mental health leadership under NMHP' that was completed for 161 participants who are the district level health authorities and service providers (psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and social workers) by the Community Psychiatry Unit of the Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru. The overarching aim of these programs was to provide an impetus to mental health leadership at district levels that could enable them to upscale public mental healthcare delivery. Upon completion of the program, 109 participants provided a feedback on the content of the program. Majority (98 %) were satisfied with the format of the program in which it was conducted and felt that their expectations were either partially or completely satisfied with appropriate content (93 %). The health authorities (43 %) gained better insights into the magnitude of mental health concerns and agreed that mental health service delivery should scale up. The service providers (17 %) felt the need to upgrade their skills in specialty areas of psychiatry in order to gear up for comprehensive mental health care delivery. Finally, the authors argue that such local level learnings should drive the policy making at the national level.