BHOPAL: Department of empowerment of persons with disabilities (DEPwD), ministry of social justice and empowerment Shakuntala D. Gamlin, secretary, laid the foundation stone of the ‘National Institute of Mental Health Rehabilitation’ at Sherpur village in Sehore district on Sunday. This Institute will be first of its kind in the country. The Central Government has approved an outlay of Rs 180 crore for this project for an initial period of three years. The land for this institute measuring about 25 acre on Bhopal-Sehore highway was allocated free of cost by the state government in October 2018.
The institute will promote mental health rehabilitation using an integrated multidisciplinary approach, to undertake capacity building and to involve in developing trained professionals in the area of mental health rehabilitation and help the government in formulating policy and programs/models for rehabilitation of persons with mental illness.
It will run various courses starting from certificate course to M.Phil in the area of vocational counselling, care giving, psychiatric nursing, community based rehabilitation, clinical psychology and psychiatric social work etc. The construction work of the building will be undertaken by CPWD, Bhopal and is expected to be completed within a period of two years.
During the construction phase the institute will run some of the courses and provide certain services from a temporary accommodation.
Once the institute is made fully functional, it will serve as an expert body in the area of mental health rehabilitation besides developing various models for rehabilitation of mental ill persons including their mainstream in the society.
Principal secretary, social justice, Ashok Shah, Joint Secretary, central government department of empowerment of persons with disabilities, Ms Dolly Chakrabarty, chief engineer CPWD, Mohd. Kamaal Ahmed, collector Sehore Ganesh Shankar Mishra and other officers of the Central and State Government were present on this occasion.