India faces manpower shortage in mental institutes

August 13th, 2010 - 9:18 pm ICT by IANS  

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) India faces a shortage of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatrist nurses in mental institutes, parliament was informed Friday.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Health Minister Ghualam Nabi Azad said that under the National Mental Health Programme, they have approved a total budget outlay of Rs.408 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan.

Agreeing that there is shortage of manpower in mental institutes in the country, Azad said as against the estimated requirement of 11,500 psychiatrists, 17,250 clinical psychologists and 23,000 psychiatric social workers and 3,000 psychiatrist nurses, there are only 3,000 psychiatrists, 500 clinical psychologists, 400 psychiatric social workers and 900 psychiatrist nurses.

He said the government is setting up centres of excellence in the field of mental health and are also upgrading and identifying those that could be strengthened. For this, the government has earmarked Rs.30 crore for each institutes.

Azad said that government institutes are also being supported to start post graduates courses or asked to increase its seats for postgraduate courses. For this, amounts from Rs.51 lakh to Rs.1 crore have been earmarked.

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