World Mental Health Day: Mysuru trust announces scholarship for psychiatry teachers 

MYSURU: Minds United For Health Sciences and Humanity Trust in Mysuru is initiating an exclusive scholarship for psychiatry teachers from this year adhering to specific learning objectives,  learning methods and assessments.

The Scholarship for Teachers towards Enrichment in Psychiatry teaching Skills (STEPS), funded by the Infosys Foundation, will be launched by the trust on October 10. It will be followed by a webinar on ‘Greater investment in psychiatry teachers- Larger access to mental health through trained doctors’.

The trust will offer enrichment of teaching skills through a network of psychiatry medical educationists (Indian Teachers of Psychiatry –IToP Forum) for over 20 weeks and reward teachers with a cash incentive of Rs 10000 and certificate. This is in addition to two annual awards for psychiatry teachers in India (IToP Award) initiated in 2018 for enhancement of training in undergraduate and postgraduate psychiatry.    

Since its inception in 2014, the trust has focused on Health Sciences and Humanity and explored areas that affect millions and are usually neglected -- like mental health.  

Prof Mohan Isaac, from the University of Western Australia and Visiting Professor to NIMHANS, the advisor and chief mentor of the STEPS programme, said, “In India, there is a gap of 70-80% between the requirement and available resources for the mental health needs of society. To work in this challenging scenario, psychiatry teachers in medical colleges have to be involved and encouraged at all levels, so that they can do their best to train MBBS doctors in the available time period. Hence investing in psychiatry teachers in India is apt for the World Mental Health Day this year.”
 
There is no mandatory evaluation of psychiatry skills among upcoming MBBS doctors in India even in the new competency-based medical curriculum. Also, there is nothing related to psychiatry in the pandemic learning module for MBBS students released recently, said Dr Kiran Kumar who is a trustee.
 
Further elaborating, Dr Kiran Kumar said, “The trust is now ensuring expenditure close to Rs 100,000 in mental health every year, and it is a big leap in education in India at undergraduate and postgraduate level to ensure best possible mental health services to the public. Interestingly most of the funding for the trust has come from those who are keen on mental health, including the Infosys Foundation. An investment in teachers is an investment in the future and an investment in society.”
 
Dr M Kishor, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, JSS Medical College and Hospital, JSSAHER, who is also a co-chairperson of the Indian Psychiatric Society Faculty Training Task Force, said that India has one of the highest numbers of medical colleges, with more than 500, and over 4,50,000 doctors are being trained at any given time, which is the highest in the world. "If we want to work in health sciences and humanity, we have to do a lot for psychiatry teachers. They can positively influence hundreds of upcoming doctors who can serve the public," he said.

“The World Health Organisation has noted that the cost of unaddressed mental health is three trillion dollars. For every one dollar investment in mental health, there is a saving of three dollars. It is encouraging to note that psychiatry is one of the core areas of this trust. The pandemic has brought a plethora of problems for people around the globe in almost all aspects of life. Unfortunately there is a consistently low focus on mental health. Less than 2 percent of the annual health budget is reserved for mental health in the majority of countries,” added Dr Kishor.  

About STEPS

STEPS is a flexible programme that involves trainers and trainees interacting in peer to peer format for Online Teaching-Learning Session. The training faculties are psychiatry teachers who have been trained in medical education from India and abroad along with medical education experts. Undergraduate and postgraduate students will also be part of the sessions. Annual scholarship of Rs. 10,000 per psychiatry teacher (up to 4 scholarships per year) will be given. The last date to submit applications is November 30. For details, send a mail to mindsmysore@gmail.com