School Mental

Health Programs in
India

SK, India
 Overview
Government sponsored programs
in India
Additional programs
TOPICS Organiztions
Obstacles
Things to be considered
What needs to be done
Conclusion
OVERVIEW

• School mental health program (SMHP) has been

recognized as key to improve the mental health
and well-being of school going children

• In India, there is no comprehensive SMHP that

covers all school children across the country

• Need arises from the escalating child and

adolescent mental health problems in the country
 MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS
PERTAINING TO SCHOOL-GOING
CHILDREN IN INDIA

• National Mental Health Program (NMHP)

• Integrated Child Development Services
(ICDS)
• Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK)
• Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram
• SHP under Ayushman Bharat
NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM (NMHP)

• Launched by GoI in 1982 to provide mental health care to all,

encourage application of mental health knowledge in general
healthcare, and promote community participation in the mental health
service development

• In 2008, DMHP was revised to add components of like skills education

and counselling in schools.

• Mental health awareness, providing

interventions
INTEGRATED CHILD
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)

• Initiated in 1975, ICDS is a government program in

India which provides nutritional meals, preschool
education, primary healthcare, immunization,
health check-up and referral services to children
under 6 years of age and their mothers; to lay the
foundation for proper psychological, physical, and
social development of the child

• Tenth five-year plan linked ICDS to Anganwadi

centres
RASHTRIYA BAL SWASTHYA KARYAKARM (RBSK)

• In 2013, MoHFW initiated a program under

National Rural Health Program called RSBK, with a
systemic approach of early identification and link to
care, support and treatment.

• Aimed to screen 270 million individuals from 0-18

years for:
⚬ defects at birth
⚬ deficiencies
⚬ diseases
⚬ development delays including disabilities
(autism, LD, ADHD)
RASHTRIYA KISHOR
SWASTHYA KARYAKRAM
(RKSK)

• In order to ensure holistic development of

adolescent population, MoHFW launched RKSK
in 2014 to reach out to in and out-of-school
adolescents with special focus on marginalized
and undeserved groups .

• Objectives: to Improve nutrition, sexual and

reproductive health, enhance mental health,
prevent Injuries and violence, and prevent
substance misuse
SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM UNDER AYUSHMAN
BHARAT (2017)

• Joint collaborative programme between the MoHFW and MoHRD that targets both
Education and Health implementers to facilitate an integrated approach to health
programming and more effective learning at the school level.

• Focus on emerging social morbidities- injuries,

violence, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors,
psychological & emotional disorders.

• Training module includes: improving nutrition, sexual

and reproductive health, mental health; preventing
injuries, violence, substance misuse, etc.
SMH IN INDIA:
The current status

• These policies are progressive as they target holistic growth of

children; however, due to improper implementation the outcomes
are not very encouraging.

• In the ICDS, the services are supposed to be delivered by village-

level workers, who are over-burdened, meagrely paid, and not
technically well-equipped to handle complex psychological issues.

• Often, transient activities occur when something attention-grabbing

event occurs, but disappears again once the issue in question begins
to settle down.
 ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS
SMH MODELS: @NIMHANS (KAPUR ET AL.)

• In 1970s, Kapur et al. started a two-phase program to train

school-teachers in early detection and management of health
problems among children.
⚬ Orientation of teachers towards various psychological problems
⚬ Training in managing minor psychological problems

• Initiated a comprehensive SMH program for rural areas with children and teachers,
targeting both psychosocial and cognitive development

• An hour/day; assessments; results showed significant improvement; later tailored for

tribal children
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS
MODEL ON HEALTH PROMOTION USING LIFE-
SKILLS IN ADOLESCENTS @NIMHANS (BHARATH &
KUMAR)
• A year-long life-skills education (LSE) program focusing on psychosocial competence in
adolescents, aiming to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, improving
communication skills and interpersonal relations, strengthening stress-coping abilities, and
making them self-aware and empathic.

• Comprehensive coverage of motivation, hygiene, discipline, peer relationship, adolescent

turmoil, social responsibility, sexuality, and drug abuse.

• The teachers were trained as life-skills facilitators to ensure integration of the program in
the school system; provision of an assessment of outcome of the program
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS
PROMOTION OF WELLNESS FOR PRE-SCHOOLERS
PROGRAM
• Initiated in 2007, an intervention program for preschoolers by
Nithya Poornima involving preschoolers and their mothers to
improve mother–child interaction and enhance pro-social
behaviour and cognitive skills of children.

• Intervention with mothers focused upon introduction to normative child

development, effective parenting, shaping positive behaviour, healthy
communication, pro-social behaviour, and pre-academic skills.

• Intervention for children focused on communication, conflict resolution,

pro-social skills, and pre-academic skills.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS
ZIPPY'S FRIENDS PROGRAM
• A universal school-based programme for primary-school
children to promote the mental health and emotional
wellbeing by increasing their repertoire of coping skills
and by stimulating varied and flexible ways of coping
with problems in day-to-day life.

• In India it was launched in 2004 in partnership with a

non-governmental organization (NGO), Sangath.

• At present, this program is limited to one of the states of

India and needs to be expanded to other states.
ORGANIZATIONS
• Some of the organizations working for promoting school
mental health include:
• Manas Foundation
• Counseling India
• New Horizon’s Child Development Center
• De Sousa Foundation
• Helplines like Samaritans Mumbai, iCall, Maitreyi, Cooj

• The MINDS Foundation also works for the cause in rural India
(Gujarat). They developed a cost-effective mental health education
programme for schools and teachers, and are able to provide mental
health education for under ₹4 per child.
OVERALL PICTURE
• Limited to some short-term and long-term
efforts by a few individuals and centres

• Short-term: sensitization or educational programs;

absence of inclusion of all the stakeholders, and
repeated interaction with target groups

• Long-term: experts sent to schools on a periodic basic;

not truly implemented
Obstacles

• Lack of a trained workforce and financial constraints

• Limited training avenues, resource limitations, migration of trained

professionals

• Limited funding

• Schools reluctant to be involved

• Sensitization or training efforts on positive mental health are very

limited
 Things to be considered

INTEGRATED EMPOWERMEN BETTER HEALTH-

PROGRAM T LINKAGE ORIENTED

An integrated program The programs should A better linkage A need to be “health”

focusing both on empower the among schools, rather than “illness”
promotion of positive stakeholders and parents, mental health oriented; it should not
mental health & decrease the experts, community remain limited to a
prevention of requirement of the service providers, and few with problems
psychological involvement of trained other such agencies
problems for children mental health related to school
from varied professionals at each children
socioeconomic stage.
backgrounds
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

• Establishing of a steering body

• Involvement of all stakeholders

• Multi-layered program

• Focus on capacity building in schools

• Outcome assessment

• Better utilization of resources

• International liaison

• Use of technology
 Conclusion
• In India there is realization that SMH should be a national goal; however, far less
has been done toward its actual implementation. 

• Education comes under concurrent list;  therefore, a national SMHP will require strong
coordination between center and all the states. 

• Sensitization of stakeholders, utilization of available school resources for capacity

building, proactive use of technology and media, establishment of national and
international networks, and similar other efforts are some practical steps that can
be taken in this direction.

• Moreover, factors related to geographical vastness and socioeconomic diversities should be

taken into account while planning a comprehensive SMHP.
MAIN REFERENCES
Kumar, D.; Bharath, S.; Hirisave, U.; Agarwal, A; & Shah, H. (n.d.). School mental
health programs in India: Current status and future directions. School Mental Health,
95-104.

Devvarta, K. (2021). School mental health program in India: Need to shift from a
piecemeal approach to a long-term comprehensive approach with strong intersectoral
coordination. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 63 (1), 91-96. DOI:
10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_204_20
Thank you!