ABSTRACT
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru has been involved in psychosocial support and mental health services (PSSMHS) for survivors of disasters since four decades. This includes psychosocial preparedness, capacity building, hazard vulnerability risk reduction, mitigation, providing psychosocial first aid, care, support, rehabilitation, and promoting recovery. Recognizing the need for furtherance of the objectives of PSSMHS, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India sanctioned the Centre for Psycho Social Support in Disaster Management (CPSSDM) at NIMHANS in August 2019. An outpatient- based care center called Psychosocial Care Clinic for trauma survivors – Samaashraya Clinic was started in October 2020. This is an innovative clinic (both online -24x7 helpline and onsite) aimed to attend to, to care for, and to address the mental health and psychosocial concerns of the trauma survivors. It is the first of its kind in the country. The clinic has a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychiatrists, psychiatric social workers, clinical psychologists, and mental health nurses. In this paper, we intend to present our experience of setting up this clinic and through which we wish to improve capacity building of such similar services across the country to address the psychosocial care in disaster management.
