SHILLONG, Nov 29: The state Cabinet on Tuesday passed the Mental Health & Social Care Policy.
With this, Meghalaya became the first state in the Northeast and the third in the country to have such a policy. The vision of the policy is to promote overall mental health and well-being and facilitate appropriate access and care pathways. Its two main pillars are inter-departmental convergence and robust engagement with communities.
The policy is part of a sensitive public health approach adopted by the state for providing mental, psychological and social care. A holistic lifecycle approach is being adopted, as part of the Meghalaya State Health Policy launched in May 2021, for encouraging preventive and promotive healthcare, upholding the curative and enabling dimensions.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the policy will ensure proper attention to mental health, especially for children, adolescents and youth.
“We strongly feel that mental health issues are often neglected and hence, a comprehensive policy was required to address the issue. This policy will ensure that proper attention is given to mental health, particularly for our youth and adolescents,” he said.
Health Minister James PK Sangma tweeted: “The policy is culturally rooted in the state and looks to address the stigma linked with mental health. The policy is also community-centric and will improve recognition, rehabilitation and reformation, necessary for creating awareness and building support systems.”
With the pandemic highlighting the need to devise an inclusive and robust institutional response, especially for vulnerable groups, this is an effort by the state government towards improving the psychological and overall social well-being of the people through this policy.
On the occasion of World Mental Health Day on October 10 this year, the state government had announced the draft “State Mental Health and Social Care Policy” with an aim to promote overall mental health and well-being and facilitate appropriate access and care pathways for common and severe mental health concerns.
Following its announcement, the draft policy was put up in public domain for feedback from the civil society. The feedback was then incorporated into the draft policy and reviewed before finalizing the same.
The policy is a result of iterations with several stakeholders, a process which forms an important part of ongoing state capability enhancement framework. The process involved the departments concerned and agencies as part of a collaborative proposition towards problem identification and solving in the context of mental health.
The policy, which takes into consideration the social determinants of mental ill-health and cultural security to be facilitated through collaborative engagement with communities to promote equitable mental health and social care for all, will be implemented through convergence across departments and policies while strengthening human resources and community institutions including financial support and infrastructure.
As part of attaining a greater vision of the State Health Policy, several steps are being taken by the state government such as the launch of Chief Minister’s Safe Motherhood Scheme for saving the lives of mothers and infants, launch of Early Childhood Development Mission as well as the initiation of Village Health Councils etc.
