CHENNAI: A new research centre for mental health issues has been launched in the city by Sundram Fasteners Limited and Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), an unit of Banyan- an NGO for the homeless and mentally ill persons, in partnership.
Speaking at the launch event, Vandana Gopikumar, co -founder of Banyan said persistent mental ill health could have multi-dimensional negative consequences.
“The centre aims to use innovations that have worked, set up demonstration sites and take to scale some of these approaches in collaboration with multiple stakeholders including the government, users of the mental health systems and civil society organisations.”
Nachiket Mor, country director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said he believed BALM’s experience and in-depth grassroots level insights, offer a pathway to moving beyond mental health into the realm of health systems design, that is lacking currently.
In his address, S Parasuraman, Director of Tata Institute of Social Science, said, TISS is proud to partner with The Banyan and BALM - two organisations that have embraced this philosophy, towards capacity building, building knowledge, and most importantly engaged in field-level practice that seeks an improvement in the quality of life of the most marginalised.