Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

CoE in Mental Health for capital

Thiruvananthapuram: Revising a previous recommendation of its Standing Committee, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided that the Department of Psychiatry at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College is better suited to be developed for a Rs.30-crore project for setting up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Mental Health, under the National Mental Health Plan (NMHP).

The Standing Committee had earlier recommended the Kozhikode-based Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (IMHANS) for the project.

The Ministry has already communicated to the State Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission, that the first instalment of Rs.5.28 crore under the CoE scheme of the NMHP is being released to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College .

The Thiruvananthapuram Medical College had earlier come second in an all-India rating for the choice of mental health institutions to be developed as CoEs . IMHANS did not figure in the list at all but was awarded the project following the State government’s intervention.

Kerala, despite being one of the 11 States chosen by the Centre for the project, was at one stage in danger of losing it because of intense political lobbying between Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.

The CoE scheme is intended for manpower development in the field of psychiatry, to tide over the acute shortage of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric nurses and psychiatric social workers across the country.

The Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, which is already running PG courses (Psychiatry) and diploma courses in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatric Social Work, was thus always the best choice for the scheme.

It is thanks to the intervention of the Union Minister of State for External Affairs and the local MP Shashi Tharoor, who raised this issue with the Union Health Minister, that the project has now been re-assigned to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College .

“In all States except Kerala, the institutions recommended by the expert committees were chosen for the CoE scheme. It was quite unfair that the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, despite coming second in the all-India rating, should be denied the project. As the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College is also running clinics in the Mental Health Centre at Peroorkada, another premier institution in the field, this is an opportunity to develop both institutions,” official sources said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Mabberley to deliver lecture
New models of cars
Panel for Technopark security soon
Panel studies problems of cleaning workers
CoE in Mental Health for capital
New Director for NIIST
New CGM for SBT
Assumes charge
AOL to offer free training in yoga
Chit subscribers not to bear service tax liability
Airport development: steps on for rehabilitation
Yoga classes

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu