NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH AND NEURO SCIENCES, BANGALORE

6.41. National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore

6.41.1. The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) was established in 1974 as an autonomous Institution. This Institute is a Joint Venture of Central Government and the Government of Karnataka.

6.41.2. The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) is a premier research and training centre in the field of mental health and neuro sciences. Based on the work done at NIMHANS since its inception in 1974, the University Grants Commission declared this as a Deemed University from 1994. The three important activities of the Institute are directed towards manpower development, patients care and research.

6.41.3. The following departments of the Institute are involved in achieving the objectives:

6.41.3.(i) (1) Biophysics, (2) Biostatistics, (3) Clinical Psychology, (4) Epidemiology, (5) Human Genetics, (6) Mental Health Education, (7) Neuromicrobiology, (8) Neuro- anaesthesia, (9) Neurochemistry, (10) Neuro- logy, (11) Neuropathology, (12) Neurophysio- logy, (13) Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology, (14) Neuro- surgery, (15) Neuro- virology, (16) Nursing, (17) Psychiatry, (18) Psychiatric and Neurological Rehabilitation, (19) Psychiatric Social Work, (20) Psy- chopharmacology, (21) Speech Pathology and Audiology and (22) Ayurvedic Research Unit.

6.41.4. Hospital Services: The Institute has a 805 bedded hospital. Out of this 650 beds are for Psychiatry and 155 for Neurology and Neurosurgery. There are general wards, paying wards and ICUs. NIMHANS offers neuropsychiatric and rehabilitation services and the outpatient services are available on all days. The Emergency and Casualty Services are available round the clock with modem facilities of CT scan and Angiogram.

6.41.5. Stroke Unit: Over 2000 patients with stroke are seen at casualty and emergency services at NIMHANS. NIMHANS has been at the forefront in conducting research in the management both in drug treatment and in surgical aspects. It has now become possible to institute new methods of treatment with thrombolytic agents (tissue plasminogen activator) within 3 hours of the stroke. Those patients, who already have developed paralysis and have speech difficulty, treatment to prevent future episodes and physiotherapy, speech therapy and rehabilitation are given. NIMHANS has all these disciplines and a comprehensive programme in rehabilitation is being offered. However, for providing intensive treatment in the first few hours, the facilities were inadequate and therefore a stroke unit with 15 beds and state of art facilities has been established.

6.41.5.(i) The Stroke Unit to take care of the patients with stroke and related neurological problems was inaugurated at the Institute on November 4, 1998 by Sri Dalit Ezhilmalai, Hon'ble Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and President, NIMHANS.

6.41.5.(ii) A number of projects to study the effect of Ayurvedic medicine in treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders have been carried out over the years. Recently to augment and promote the activities, the Ministry of Health and F.W. has established the Advanced Centre for Ayurveda in Mental Health and Neurosciences at NIMHANS. The Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and homoeopathy has sanctioned Rs. 25 lakh to create infrastructural facilities with 30 beds.

6.41.5.(iii) An exclusive child psychiatry block is being constructed with 30 beds. The first phase is completed and the next two phases will be over the next 18 months. 15 cottages are being built through donation from philanthropists, for inpatient facilities for psychiatry patients and 28 special ward rooms for neurology and neurosurgery patients would be commissioned in next few months. These extra facilities will significantly reduce the long waiting list of patients requiring admission.

6.41.5.(iv) A major thrust has been to improve the infrastructural facilities particularly in creating campus computer communication network to link the various services - outpatient, inpatient, emergency and casualty, laboratories, radiology, medical records, library, research laboratories and administration. Internet facilities have been provided by National Informatics Centre, New Delhi with 64 KBPS RF link.

6.41.6. National Mental Health Programme: NIMHANS continues to play an important role in National Mental Health Programmes since the district model developed by the Institute is now implemented in four states of the country and is being extended to seven more states. Quality assurance of mental health care with focus on mental hospitals is being evaluated under research programme of National Human Rights Commission.

6.41.7. Manpower Development: NIMHANS is the largest postgraduate training centre in mental health and neurosciences, offering postgraduate courses in Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Clinical Psychology, Psychiatric Social Work, Neurophysiology, Biophysics and Nursing.

6.41.8. The following courses are offered at NIMHANS

1. Diploma in Psychological Medicine 2. M. D. in Psychological Medicine 3. D. M. in Neurology 4. M. Ch in Neurosurgery 5. Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology 6. Ph.D. in Neurophysiology 7. M. Phil in Neurophysiology 8. M. Phil in Psychiatric Social Work 9. M. Phil in Medical and Social Psychology 10. M. Phil in Biophysics 11. M. Phil in Speech Language Pathology 12. Post Doctoral Certificate in Neuroanaesthesia 13. M. Sc in Psychiatric Nursing 14. Diploma in Psychiatric Nursing 15. Diploma in Neuro Nursing 16. Diploma in Clinical Neurophysiology Technology

6.41.9. In addition, it is also a training centre for short- term WHO fellows, postgraduates from different states of the country in non allied subjects like medicine, surgery, paediatrics, and post-graduates from schools of social work. Thus, NIMHANS has been the centre of attraction for postgraduates in mental health and neurosciences, since it has all the sub specialities in mental health like child mental health, community mental health, family psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and also there is an integrated system of manpower development in this institute which is unique.

6.41.10. At any given time, there are 200 postgraduates pursiuing studies. In addition, Ph.D. degree in mental health is offered.

6.41.11. Research: Research is an ongoing activity at the Institute and the research output is projected in the research publications of each department of the Institute.

6.41.11.(i) A number of research projects funded by ICMR, Depart of Bio-Technology, Ministry of Welfare and WHO as well as a number of projects under collaboration with national and international agencies are going on. NIMHANS itself has a separate fund, made up of voluntary donation, to finance research projects of the faculty of the Institute. Grants are given to the NIMHANS faculty, under this fund, for projects of 12-18 months duration. In addition to the research work conducted in the Institute, there has been collaborative re- search/symposia with various national and international agencies.

6.41.11.(ii) The staff of the Institute have adequately represented in conferences, seminars, symposium in India and abroad and thus contributed to their areas of specializations. Several staff members have been selected for international and national fellowships.

6.41.12. Collaborative Research: Networking with Defence Engineering and Electromedical Laboratory (DEBEL) has lead to the joint venture in technological development of ventilators, some specific neurosurgical equipments and functional electrical stimulation. Memorandum of understanding had been signed during the year with Centre for Biochemical Technology (CSIR), New Delhi and research in molecular genetics is in progress in schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and muscular dystrophy.

6.41.12.(i) The two National facilities established four years ago by multi agency collaboration, the DST, DBT, ICMR, NIC namely Brain Bank and National Neurosciences Information Centre are serving as nodal points for research and dissemination of knowledge.

6.41.12.(ii) The collaboration between NIMHANS and St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences is envisaged in (a) Providing teaching and training facilities to students and conducting the necessary examinations as stipulated in their respective courses of training (b) Field of research (c) Area of providing clinical facilities to students and (d) Conducting workshops/ seminars jointly.

6.41.13. Oration Workshop/Symposia/ Seminars Organised:

(i) Prof. V. Ramalingaswami, National Research Fellow, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi delivered the Smt. Subhadra Dayananda Rao Oration on October 1, 1997 on the present problems of remerging infections like T.B. dengue, plague and HIV.

(ii) Symposium on Trauma

(iii) One Day Networking Workshop for Organisations, Providing Care for Children Affected by or Infected with HIV.

(iv) Symposium on Gender Discrimination and Stress: Psychosocial Management

6.41.14. Training Programme: The following training programmes were carried out at the Institute:

(i) Training for staff of residential Institutions under Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka.

(ii) Training of mental health professionals and non-mental health professionals

(iii) Training on counselling under National AIDS Control Programme

(iv) Training of College Teachers in students counselling.

(v) Training conducted by Nursing Department

6.41.15. Other Activities: The Third Convocation of NIMHANS under the presence of Sri Dalit Ezhilmalai, Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India and President NIMHANS was held on November 4, 1998. 54 candidates were awarded various degrees and diplomas during the convocation.

6.41.15.(i) The Hindi Day was celebrated at the Institute on 24.9.98. The Institute made progress for implementation of Official language policy.

6.41.15.(ii) Eight Publications were brought out during the year. The publication on "Family Intervention for Promotion of Health Child Development", a training manual for primary Health Workers (English and Kannada) was released during the year.

6.41.16. Budget: 1998-99 (Rs. In Crore) Plan Govt. of India Rs. 13.00 Govt. of Karnataka Rs. 1.00 Non-Plan Govt. of India Rs. 8.55 Govt. of Karnataka, Rs. 7.98

6.41.16.(i) 75% and 25% of the plan expenditure is shared by the Central Government and the Government of Karnataka respectively. 45% and 55% of the non-plan expendiure is borne by the Central Government and the Government of Karnataka respectively.