Background:

To help the survivors of disasters get back to normalcy and better functioning, a great deal of human as well as material resources   are required. The psychosocial issues and concerns induced by disasters make survivors look for external assistance and care. In the course of rehabilitation the preparedness level of individuals, families, communities , and all other stakeholders is detrimental from both health and mental health point of view. Hence, the health sector plays a very significant role in rehabilitating disaster survivors, preparing communities to face future disasters, and in building coping and resilience among them to overcome any emergencies caused by disasters. It is very important to include psychosocial support and mental health services in the health care systems as there should be a trained human resource at all levels (state, district, block, and village) for successful inclusion and integration of psychosocial support with health programs before, during, and after disasters. Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Services (PSSMHS) in disaster management both internationally and nationally are striding into dynamic changes in the recent past. Keeping in tandem with the Sendai framework on disaster risk reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and India disaster risk reduction strategies by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) aim at disaster management from risk reduction and resilience building in the hazard, risk, and vulnerability mapping of the country including the psychosocial perspectives.

Aim

To create a group of trained health professionals who would be a resource at the state level to take responsibility of not only training other health officials and workers but addressing issues and concerns of disaster survivors during emergencies as well

Objectives

LEAD PARTNERS

It is a collaborative work of the Directorate General of Health Services, New Delhi, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and Department of Psychosocial Support in Disaster Management, NIMHANS, Bengaluru with active support from the respective states and UTs.

Methodology

Both on-site and online workshops with participatory training methodology will be adopted that would help participants to actively engage in the program- and share their experiences. In each session, the sharing of their experiences helps them clearly understand the concepts. The session would allow the trainees to comprehend the concept as well as the context in which it can be used would be explained through various training methodologies such as group discussion, presentation, analysis, explanations, concept brainstorming, role plays, free listing, lecture, summation, demonstrations, buzz sessions will be used to train participants. Recap of the previous day's sessions will be done using individual and group methods to enable participants to remember and retain the knowledge gained from the sessions.

Content of the trainings

The training content consists of: 

DURATION

One State or UT will be considered per month for three percolation training programs in various zones. The duration of each capacity-building program will be for five days. These are residential training programs where participants will get more time, opportunities, and convenience to interact with both trainers and fellow participants. This would also encourage healthy discussions and mutual learning among all participants. The total duration of the project would be five years to complete the proposed training in all states and UTS.

Number of health care professionals

A total of 108 capacity-building programs will be conducted for 3240 health care professionals from 28 states and 8 union territories. A total of 90 persons from each state/UT would be selected and trained in three batches (30 participants per batch). The recruitment of participants for the training will be facilitated by the health department of respective states/UTs and the major Mental Health Institutions/Government Medical College Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, or the State Nodal Officer for DMHP under the NMHP of Gol or the NHM.

trained master trainers

Almost all states and UTs have master trainers trained by the EMR division with technical support from NIMHANS in the first phase of the project. These trained master trainers will play the anchoring role in conducting sessions of the training programs and they would be provided with handholding support and guidance by the subject experts from NIMHANS. In a few states/UTs where there are no trained master trainers, the sessions will be facilitated by the NIMHANS team. However, those participants who have prior experience in disaster mental health can be trained and prepared as master trainers for the current as well as future training in the state.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL RELIEF (EMR), MOHFW AND NIMHANS INITIATIVES

NDMA, Gol, National guidelines on PSSMHS have identified the MoH&FW as the line Ministry for implementation of capacity building, service provision, and other programs. Keeping this in the background, the EMR division has been actively involved in providing PSSMHS during emergencies and disasters with varied mental health institutions. NIMHANS has been declared by the MoH&FW, as the Nodal Centre for PSSMHS for the country.

Phase 1:

Under these situations, in 2016-18, the EMR division completed the national level training of trainers on PSSMHS in all the States and UTS except in Assam and 4 UTS. A total of 95 master trainers from the health sector have been trained under this project. The master trainers who underwent the five days TOT workshops at NIMHANS were psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, and mental health nurses working in government healthcare institutes and hospitals. It is found from the follow-up activities by NIMHANS that most of the states have started providing percolation training for field-level workers and other frontier workers by themselves. However, it can be suggested that they may need handholding support from the experts in the field to carry out their training more effectively.

Phase 2:

Subsequently, in 2018-20, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through the EMR division rolled out the training program on "Capacity building for the health care professionals on psychosocial care in disaster management"  for 10 highly vulnerable states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, J&K (Karnataka), Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh) through the master trainers trained at NIMHANS, Bengaluru in the first phase of the EMR project. Equipping the health care professionals with psychosocial care skills to work with disaster survivors and integrating psychosocial care in disaster preparedness and response program of the health care sector in each state disaster management plan were the main objectives of the training programs.

As part of the second phase of the project, a total of 692 health care professionals from different districts of the states of Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Chattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh were trained on psychosocial care in disaster management. The follow-up of these trained healthcare professionals revealed that they were able to respond to the psychosocial needs of the survivors of the subsequent disasters and emergencies in their respective districts. 

Registration and Certificate:

Registration for the TOT is open for 30-40 participants per batch. A certificate will be awarded to each participant on the successful completion of the 5 days of psychosocial care in disaster management training.