KATHMANDU, MARCH 31

The federal government has allocated the functions and responsibilities of various ministries and bodies to address the problems of people suffering from mental illness and psychological dysfunction.

According to the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, such functions and responsibilities to be carried out by the cross-cutting ministries and bodies concerned were outlined through the recently issued 'Integrated Action Plan on Psycho-social Counselling Service for Mental Health Management'.

The integrated action plan aims to overcome the problems of mental illness in the country and behavioural disturbances facing people.

As mentioned in the integrated action plan circulated by the MoWCSC, the Ministry of Health and Population and the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security have been tasked to formulate and implement the programmes for migrant returnees.

The programmes will mainly focus on such youths who have been compelled to return home from foreign countries due to loss of job or other reasons.

Similarly, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nepal Police and district government attorney's offices will analyse the available facts about suicide in a bid to resolve the problems that lead people to kill themselves. The MoWCSC, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security have been tasked to provide psycho-social counselling to the persons scourged by mental health conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while also involving them in livelihood improvement programmes.

The integrated action plan envisages 20 activities to be performed by various ministries, commissions, departments, offices, non-governmental organisations, provinces, local levels and police.

The Federal Psycho-social Counselling Coordination Centre will conduct necessary trainings for the counsellors working at the provincial and local levels for implementation of the integrated action plan. Victims violence, sexual and gender minorities, and women and children taking refuge in rehabilitation centres have also been included in it. Likewise, all the government agencies concerned will be responsible to take the initiative to protect the rights and interests of senior citizens, helpless, single women and differently-abled persons in a bid to help them overcome mental problems.

One of the major activities to be performed under the integrated action plan is to prevent and control the suicide rate in the country. If there is credible information that somebody is going to commit suicide, Nepal Police, along with Psycho-social Counselling Coordination Centre will locate the particular place and person via the use of technology so as to prevent such an unpleasant incident. According to various studies carried out by government and non-government agencies, mental illness is the leading cause of suicide among the women of reproductive age. About 20 per cent of the general population suffers from various forms of mental illnesses in Nepal, study reveals.

The existing National Mental Health Policy has adopted five policies in the area of mental health in a bid to ensure easy availability and accessibility of basic and quality mental health services for all the citizens, prepare necessary human resources to deliver mental health and psycho-social service, protect the fundamental human rights of people with psycho-social disability and mental illness, enhance public awareness to promote mental health and combat the stigma attached to mental illness.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 1, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.