Dear Friends!
My sincere gratitude for giving me this stage, this podium, this mike, this opportunity, and this medallion which has fingerprints of wisdom of 74 unparalleled stalwarts. It’s an honour, great honour to enter in platinum year of a great journey.
IPS was born officially in December 1948, and this is 75th year which will lead us to 75th ANCIPS being held at Kochi. It’s a matter of great fortune that I have been installed as 75th President in this glittering platinum year.
I attended first ANCIPS in year 1992 and since then never missed any ANCIPS, nor any AGBM. In 32 years, I have seen ANCPS growing from 400 to 4000 delegates. Currently we have 8300 members, and I am sure we will cross 10K mark in this year.
Dear friends, strength matters so please motivate new psychiatrists to join IPS. We are an academic organisation, and we must identify the challenges in this area. One of the biggest challenges remains adding significance to UG psychiatry and homogenisation of PG psychiatry education. We thank the National Medical Commission for introducing CBME for UG and PG education, but its implementation is a tough task. IPS has responded to by instituting Teachers training task force which is very active. This year we plan to have a Psychiatry Teachers Forum which will be a large and interactive group updating one and all. Our long pending demand of giving importance to psychiatry in MBBS clinical examination is still unfulfilled and we will keep our advocacy group active.
We must acknowledge that a large chunk of our members are in private practice and we need to take care of their educational and other needs as well. We are almost ready with a dedicated web portal though which attempts will be made to address their needs.
Our concerns related to MHCA has not been addressed. Our plea in Honourable High Court of Mumbai is facing “Tareekh after Tareekh”. There is need to form a strong advocacy group to talk to Government for some amendments to make MHCA an Indian one.
Our journal is reaching milestone after milestone. Now it has become monthly to accommodate more research works. Our research foundation, which has made history by developing a model of low cost research, under the leadership of our past president Prof Ajit Avasthi, is gearing up for 5 multi centric studies every year. Also, we are thinking of international collaborations because in this global village many concerns are common. We are thinking of is forming an Academy of Education and Research which will be a constitution body like election commission. The academy will be a bigger umbrella under which our education research activities will flourish.
One fine morning while I was walking, lost in my inner forest, I suddenly saw a huge, big and beautiful building in Delhi NCR. The name of the building was Prashanti Bhawan. When I entered in this building, I was surprised to see a very meaningful mental health museum on two floors. Took a lift and met another surprise – there was an Academy of Education and research with a well-functioning library. On another floor there was Institute of Public Mental Health which was engaged in training laypersons and caregivers for capacity building and providing tele psychiatric help to needy people in 14 languages. And on the top, there was a big meeting room. I know this dream is too ambitious for small duration of one year, but IPS is not for one year and I am sure this dream will be realised soon. Meanwhile, we can think of Virtual Museum, virtual library, virtual mental health art gallery, and an online archive of films related to mental health.
We observe IPS foundation day on 7th of January and fix a theme usually one or two months earlier. This year we are setting a new tradition by announcing the theme not only for the Foundation Day program but also for the year, and the Theme is – Happy Family Healthy Mind! Let us organise multiple family centric programs at local state zonal and national levels online and offline. We may focus on Mental health promotion, patients and caregivers’ education and psychosocial rehabilitation.
With these few words, I request all the members to extend their support in realising some platinum dreams.
Dr Vinay Kumar
President: Indian Psychiatric Society
Secretary: Suicidology Sp Section: World Association for Social Psychiatry
Past Hony General Secretary:Indian Psychiatric Society (2018-20)
Imm Past President : Indian Psychiatric Society Eastern Zonal Branch (2020-21)
Hony Treasurer: Indian Association for Social Psychiatry (2016-2020)
Chairperson: Publication Committee, Indian Psychiatric Society (2016-18)
Past Hony Treasurer: Indian Psychiatric Society (2012-16)
Chairperson IPS Election Commission 2010-11
Direct Council Member: IPS (2005-2008)
Consultant Psychiatrist
Manoved Mind Hospital, Patna,
