MANAS Mitra

Introduction

MANAS which stands for “Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System” was endorsed as a national program by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). MANAS is based on life skills and core psychological processes delivering age-appropriate methods for all age groups from 0-70 years. An app initially targeting 15-35 years was virtually launched by Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (PSA), on April 13, 2021. The app integrates the health and wellness efforts of various government ministries, and scientifically validated indigenous tools with gamified interfaces developed/researched by various national bodies and research institutions. MANAS App project is jointly being executed by NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC Pune, and C-DAC Bengaluru and has now entered into phase II.

Challenging situations like the ongoing unprecedented pandemic, natural disasters, etc. affect mental well-being apart from impacting economic, social, and other facets of a person’s life. Supporting mental well-being becomes the need of the hour to address the negative consequences of mental problems on livelihood, productivity, and positivity. Such a support system will not only boost mental well-being but will also help in boosting the quality of life and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

MANAS Mitra from O/o PSA in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is focused on channelizing the already existing efforts for the promotion of positive mental well-being among common citizens and for facilitating mental health care of the research community through scientifically validated information screened and reviewed by experts. 

Commemorating International Day of Yoga 2021, the first webinar under MANAS Mitra was held on the theme of “Community Mental Well-Being in Challenging Times” with experts from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), World Health Organisation (WHO), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) Ministry of AYUSH, and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). 

Subsequently, various MANAS Mitra webinars in partnership with NMHP Chhattisgarh, CIP Ranchi, LGBRIMH at Tezpur, and RuTAG-IIT partners have covered demand-driven subjects ranging from Women’s Mental Health to Mindfulness of the student community. The video recordings of all webinars are available in the video gallery section below.

MANAS Mitra envisioned to have a broad impact, not only in the COVID-19 scenario, but also in the areas mentioned below: 

• Community Awareness about positive mental well-being

• Enabling Learning through webinars, Q&A sessions

• Deciphering Information from key ministries, government programs, etc.

• Building Partnership and Engagement for knowledge transfer.

• Resources Sharing: Building an online community to share information and resources to improve the quality and coverage of mental health care.

• Strengthening collective efforts to further national programs like the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), National Health Mission (NHM), etc for facilitating access to knowledge for preventive and curative mental health care by working with ministerial, academic, and industrial partners.

PROVIDE YOUR SUGGESTIONS/FEEDBACK HERE:

In our attempt to build a healthier and happier community by addressing mental health problems viz. stress, anxiety, etc. that can manifest in all age groups, we invite you to share your ideas/suggestions with us by filling out the form below. If you have attended our events, and have any questions or feedback, please use the fill to connect with us.

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