Insight Bureau: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced the launch of the National Digital Mental Health Programme while presenting the Union Budget.

The National Tele Mental Health Program will be launched for mental health counselling with NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences) as the nodal centre.

She also announced that an open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem will be rolled out, under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities.

Notably, as per World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 7.5 percent Indians suffer from mental health related issues. Around 56 million Indians according to the statistics suffer from depression and over 38 million people in India suffer from anxiety. The workforce of healthcare workers providing mental health care in India is also extremely lower than the desirable number of 3 or above psychiatrists and psychologists per 100,000 population.

Read more: https://enewsinsight.com/highlights-of-union-budget-2022-23/