TELE
MANAS – POLITY
News:
Tele-MANAS helpline
received over 2 lakh calls since launch in Oct 2022
What's
in the news?
● The
Tele-Manas helpline under the National Tele Mental Health Programme has
received over 200,000 calls since its launch in October 2022.
Tele
MANAS helpline:
● It
is the government's national mental
health helpline which is a toll-free service.
Nodal
Ministry:
● It
was announced by the Union Ministry of
Health in the Union budget 2022-23 as an acknowledgement to the mental
health crisis in the country.
Uniqueness:
● With
42 functioning Tele Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System (MANAS)
cells in 31 states and Union Territories,
the service is currently catering to more than 1,300 calls per day in 20 languages.
Features:
● It
is a novel initiative to enable people to seek support for their mental health
issues while maintaining anonymity of the callers, thereby reducing the stigma
generally surrounding mental health issues.
Toll-free
helpline numbers:
● 14416 or 1-800-891-4416
with multi-language provision allow callers to select the language of their
choice for availing the services.
Go
back to basics:
National
Tele Mental Health Programme of India:
● It
was inaugurated on the occasion of the World
Mental Health Day on 10th October 2022.
● It
focuses on building the mental health workforce of the nation through capacity
building initiatives whilst simultaneously ensuring that mental health services
can reach free of cost to every household and every individual, targeting the
most vulnerable and unreached sections of society that may otherwise have gone
unnoticed.