Preparedness Plan for Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Services

Disasters cause a devastating effect on the human life, usually leaving a trail of human agony including short and long term psychosocial trauma on the survivors. Generally in any response the physical effects of survivors get immediate attention and psychosocial needs often given less importance if not intervened may lead to dysfunction and disability. Timely psychosocial support will prevent the development of long term psychosocial problems and hasten the recovery of survivors. Overall goal of psychosocial support intervention would be to enhance the coping and resiliency of the community towards improving overall well being. Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Services (PSSMHS) is one of the important cross-cutting areas of DM intervention. The plan for PSSMHS shall be a component of overall planning for disaster management with an aim of providing Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Services integrated with preparedness, response, mitigation, relief and rehabilitation. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) is the Nodal Ministry. The overall plan for the PSSMHS will be developed by the Nodal Ministry; other Line Ministries may prepare their plans based on the nodal ministries plans.

The detailed soft copy can be downloaded from the link below