Fellowship to journalist for promotion of Community Mental Health Programme in Assam’s Darrang
From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai : The community mental health programme taken up by SATRA ( Social Action for Appropriate Transformation and Advancement in Rural Areas ) , local leading NGO of Darrang district in collaboration with the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI) has gained a fresh momentum following the significant improvement of the COVID induced situation in the district. The implementing agency keeping in mind about the importance of media in advocating the programme by creating opinions at different levels of the society including the policy makers has recently introduced a media fellowship . As a part of this new initiative two local journalist one each from Assamese vernacular and English daily have been selected to avail the opportunity for a term of one year with certain terms and conditions regarding publication of relevant articles , news etc
‘We have introduced the media fellowship programme for the first time in the current calendar year with two senior journalists of the district representing English and Assamese daily respectively.”, said Nani Saikia , Executive Director of SATRA while announcing about their decision. “The fellowship initially would last for one year with fulfillment of certain terms and condition by the beneficiary journalists. The number of beneficiary journalists may be increased in the years to come .” , Saikia added. It may be mentioned here that SATRA has been working for the improvement of the mental health environment of the district for last seven years. Presently more than 850 patients taking medicine and maintaining normal routine. “A key component of the community program is building capacity among communities. The process of social integration and rehabilitation involves creating acceptance among family and community groups through regular orientation and counselling.”, said Kamruz Haque, senior project manager of SATRA. “Some of the strategies undertaken to target awareness and address stigma around mental illness include participation by family members, sensitization to treatment and social inclusion. Stigma and discrimination have negative consequences of ignorance and misinformation.”, Haque maintained.
One recent study have found mental health literacy among Indian adolescents to be very low, i.e. depression was identified by 29.04% and schizophrenia/psychosis was recognized only by 1.31%. Stigma was noted to be present in help-seeking. These findings reinforce the need to increase awareness of mental health. Mental health literacy is a related concept which is increasingly seen as an important measure of the awareness and knowledge of mental health disorders. Health literacy has been described as the ability to access, understand, and use the information to promote and maintain good health. ”Community mental health care programme imply that all mental health and well-being needs of the community are met in the community or nearest to the community, using community resources and the primary health care system. It goes beyond the only treatment and includes.” Project Manager Haque further stated.
