National Mental Health Policy 2014

The vision of the National Mental Health Policy is to promote mental health, prevent mental illness, enable recovery from mental illness, promote destigmatization and desegregation, and ensure socio-economic inclusion of persons affected by mental illness by providing accessible, affordable and quality health and social care to all persons through their life-span within a rights-based framework.

Objectives of the Policy: To provide universal access to mental healthcare.

• To increase access to and utilization of comprehensive mental health services.
• To increase access to mental health care especially to vulnerable groups including homeless persons, persons in remote areas, educationally, socially and deprived sections.
• To reduce prevalence and impact of risk factors associated with mental health problems.
• To reduce risk and incidence of suicide and attempted suicide.
• To ensure respect for rights of persons with mental health problems.
• To reduce stigma associated with mental health problems.
• To enhance availability and equitable distribution of skilled human resources for mental health.
• To progressively enhance financial allocation and improve utilisation for mental health promotion and care.
• To identify and address the social, biological and psychological determinants of mental health problems and to provide appropriate interventions.