Brain Health Initiative, a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country launched in Karnataka

Mental Health screening a must for all: Health Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar

Bengaluru, Jan. 25:

Health Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar launched the Karnataka Brain Health Initiative, a first-of-its-kind in the entire country undertaken by NIMHNANS in association with Niti Ayog.

Speaking at the virtual launch program Dr.K.Sudhakar said that the Karnataka Brain Health Initiative is being rolled out in Bengaluru, Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts on pilot basis. Under this programme doctors will be trained in screening and treating mental health patients.

Ever since the beginning of pandemic, our govt is helping people to cope with mental health issues in association with NIMHANS. We have conducted thousands of mental health counseling sessions with Covid infected persons and their family members. Since mental health has a bearing on physical health and overall wellness of the individual we need to ensure that everyone is aware about mental health issues and NIMHANS is doing a very good job in taking mental healthcare to the people. Under this Brain Health Initiative even general physicians will be trained on mental healthcare.

There is a need to even screen newborn babies for mental health issues. Due to various socio-economic factors, genetic and family issues many people suffer from mental health issues. This will have an impact on their day to day lives and quality of life. Therefore we need more doctors trained in mental healthcare, said the minister.

Dr.Sudhakar insisted the program organisers to focus in implementation and deliver good results so that the program can get more budgetary allocation in future.

Low hospitalisation rate

Other than Bengaluru, the positivity rate has been less in other districts. It was about 22% last week which has now increased to 32%. About 5,230 infected persons are hospitalized including 3,442 in Govt and 1,788 in private hospitals. Only about 2% infected persons out of 3.62 lakh active cases are hospitalised which indicates that the severity of infection is not as high as it was doing second wave. It is generally seen that people are recovering within 5-6 days, so there is no need to panic. However people must not let their guard down, cautioned the minister.

The third wave is expected to recede by February second or third week as per ICMR. We have covered 100% in first dose and 84%in second dose which has contributed a lot in reducing severity and hospitalization, said Dr.Sudhakar.

Vision Document

Our health department is coming up with a vision document. The vison document lays down a comprehensive roadmap for overhaul of public health care at all three levels, primary, secondary and tertiary . There are about 30 senior experts from various disciplines who are working on this report and about 750 experts have contributed to this over the last one year. CM Basavaraj Bommai will complete six months in office on January 28th and CM will release the vision document on this occasion.

People naturally have big expectations from budget. We are in an unprecedented situation where we have to categorise the entire economy into pre-covid and post-covid periods. I am confident that both Union and State Budgets will be people-friendly and will provide necessary stimulus for overall development.

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