School mental health program in India: Need to shift from a piecemeal approach to a long-term comprehensive approach...

School mental health program (SMHP) has been recognized worldwide as key to improve the mental health and wellbeing of school going children. Unfortunately, in India, SMHP is badly neglected. There is no comprehensive SMHP that covers all school children (from rural and urban areas) across the country. A few sporadic activities that occur are praiseworthy; however, they lack a long-term approach. Major reasons for such neglect of SMHP in India could be lack of a steering body, poor intersectoral coordination, and minimal stakeholders' involvement. India, as any other country, needs to implement countrywide SMHP on the model of mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention (PPEI). This paper outlines the deplorable state of SMHP in India and the needed steps to implement an effective countrywide SMHP on the PPEI model.