Public mental health services are greatly constrained in India, and the gap between those who require treatment and those who can provide treatment is immense. The recent, Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR) and World Health Organization (WHO), Global Burden Study has highlighted that more than 200 million people in India have one or the other psychiatric disorder that needs treatment; however, there are less than 10,000 psychiatrists in India. This has implication in health care with more morbidity and mortality associated with mental illness that is unaddressed, which also adds to stigma in the society and economic burden to the nation.
Paradoxically in India, every year, more than 1,00,000 medical students graduate as doctors from more than 700medical colleges, but these doctors in general have minimal or no psychiatry education or training during their medical under-graduation. There is some change in psychiatry education in the newly implemented Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME); however, there is not a single skill in psychiatry which is mandatory for getting the license to graduate as a doctor. Psychiatry education and faculty training can have major implications in enhancing the skills of upcoming doctors in India. More research in psychiatry education is needed on how the upcoming MBBS doctors can be trained for meeting the treatment gap for addressing common mental health conditions in the community. Similarly, the psychiatry post-graduates are increasing, with more than 250 institutions in India offering DPM/DNB/MD programs and more than 1000 specialists graduating.With current guidelines from the National Medical Commission, there are three to four psychiatry faculty in each medical college for an annual intake of 100–150 medical students; it is estimated that 3000–3500 psychiatry teachers may be affiliated to medical colleges and more than 2000 psychiatry teachers may be affiliated to institutions offering post-graduate programs.The Government of India has already expressed interest to expand the number of medical colleges, with every district to have one medical college. There shall be a substantial increase in the number of under-graduate and post-graduate medical seats. Additionally, new challenges in education and training are emerging, such as the implementation of CBME, and the COVID-19 pandemic led shift to online education. Hence, there is an urgent need for a center for psychiatry education, faculty training, and research to meet these challenges in India.
The establishment of such a center can be led by the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) in association with representation from medical colleges across India. This blog is one way of “ Learning from each other” towards enhancing psychiatry education, thereby services.
Dr M Kishor
Chairperson IPS Psychiatry Teachers Forum Subcommittee
Prof & Head
Dept of psychiatry
JSSMC
JSSAHER
