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The development of national mental healthcare infrastructure's capabilities will be significantly shaped by external linkages. The achievement of the population's Comprehensive Mental Health is largely dependent on the inter-sectoral collaboration across various Ministries, which is essential to the formulation of public mental health policies. Following the implementation of the National Mental Health Programme (1982), the Indian government established the National Mental Health Policy in 2014. In order to safeguard the rights and dignity of people with mental diseases (PwMI), we were compelled by our commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to update the Mental Health Act (1987) and notify the new Mental Healthcare Act (2017). Treatment for mental disorders is now included in the Jan Arogya Yojna (ABPM-JA) under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantrai. This new policy approach, known as National Tele Mental Health Programs (TELE MANAS), aims to give the District Mental Health Programme (1996) a digital arm to combat the rising rate of mental illness at the local level. It has demonstrated its effectiveness in ensuring that mental health services are accessible and available at the patient's bedside. The Mental Health Service System must be strengthened by 2030, and this requires enthusiastic announcements of launching TELE MANAS for our armed forces personnel and expanding the coverage to various districts India. More mental health specialists, particularly clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers, are needed at Ground Zero to realize the objective for providing fair and high-quality mental healthcare. In accordance with NEP 2020 guidelines, UGC terminated the Masters in Philosophy (M Phil) program. The validity of the M.Phil. programs in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatric Social Work was recently extended by the UGC to 2025–2026. However, will this be enough to start offering high-quality training at our colleges and universities at the start of the 2026–2027 academic year? Will there be enough Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatric Social Workers available at this time to support Mental Healthcare and meet the requirements of the International standard for Mental Healthcare and Mental Health Systems? The only major concerns for Mental Healthcare are the Vulnerable Groups, which include the elderly, young people and transgender. The mere declaration of a two-year extension to move India closer to being a Viksit Bharat is debatable if there are insufficient of those MHPs in a nation of 1.45 billion people with diverse demands in every sector. This is an attempt to explore the roles that Psychiatric Social work and Clinical Psychologist play in providing services in the field of Mental Health. Is the nation prepared to use "efforts by all" to create a long-lasting mental health care system by 2026?
R. K. Mishra (Fri,) studied this question.