FM Sitharaman Announces For Mental Health Programme

Announcement came during Union Budget 2022!

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during the union budget 2022, announced that the Centre will be launching a National Tele Mental Health program.

The major focus came During the Covid pandemic which has hampered many lives and disturbed the mental level of the general public.

The Covid pandemic has not only harmed the public physically but mentally it had harmed numerous people.

According to the statement given by Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, she said, "The pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages. To better the access to quality mental health counseling and care services, a National Tele Mental Health program will be launched."

She said the National Tele Mental Health program will include a network of 23 Tele mental health centers of excellence. Nimhans to be the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore will provide technological support for the mental health programme.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced the rollout of an open platform for the national health ecosystem.

She said that the digital ecosystem will consist of an exhaustive list of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities.

She also highlighted that 95 percent of 112 aspirational districts have made tremendous progress in various indices, including health.

As per the information, the government is creating Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) — a randomly generated 14 Digit number that can be used to uniquely identify persons, authenticate them, and reading their health records, only with informed consent — across multiple systems and stakeholders.