Fortis doctor lauds launching of national tele-mental health programme

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], February 1 : After Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget Speech announced the launching of a national tele-mental health programme amid the COVID-19 pandemic, MD and CEO of Fortis, Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi lauded the government's move.
"It is very encouraging to see the Government's attention on the mental health of the citizens. The proposed National Tele-mental Programme will prove to be beneficial for a large section of society, enabling access to quality mental health counselling," Raghuvanshi said.
According to the Fortis MD, the announcement regarding the up-gradation of 2 lakh Anganwadi's and the rolling out of the digital health mission would also help in providing greater access to healthcare services and strengthen capacities.
"The digital health ecosystem is an area where we would have appreciated some more allocation, especially the National Digital Health ID initiative. Despite the programme being a long-term one, I am sure that funds will be made available in the future", he said.
While speaking on the National Digital Health Ecosystem, Raghuvanshi said, "The special status given to data centres is going to have an impact on the digitalization of the healthcare ecosystem, both from the insurers' as well as the providers' perspective. I think these are very positive outcomes from the health perspective. As the healthcare sector has been at the forefront of battling the COVID pandemic, it would have been great if certain allocations were enhanced."
The rollout of the national tele-mental health programme comes in the wake of growing scientific evidence showing mental health issues post COVID-19 infection. The national tele-mental health programme will be operated under a network of twenty-three mental health centres under the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience (NIMHANS).