Bengaluru — The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) has inaugurated the ICMR Centre for Advanced Research, a new initiative aimed at expanding research into digital tools designed to enhance mental health services and improve access to mental health resources.
The ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Digital Interventions for Mental Health Care was officially opened on Thursday by Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Secretary of the Department of Health Research (DHR) and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). During the inauguration, Dr. Bahl also released a booklet commemorating 70 years of collaboration between NIMHANS and ICMR.
The centre will focus on developing scalable and contextually adapted digital tools tailored specifically to the Indian environment. The research aims to support self-care and peer support within communities through these digital interventions. Additionally, the centre will emphasize capacity-building and the creation of a platform to provide guidelines and support for users of mental health applications.
Dr. Seema Mehrotra, Professor of Clinical Psychology and the principal investigator of the centre, outlined the goals of the initiative. “We aim to strengthen empirical evidence on digital mental health in India and contribute to evolving guidelines and policy recommendations for the development, research, and optimal use of these applications,” Dr. Mehrotra said.
This new centre represents a significant step forward in integrating digital innovations into mental health care, with the potential to greatly impact how mental health services are delivered and accessed across the country.
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