BENGALURU: To address the escalating incidence of suicide in India, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) launched the NIMHANS Suicide Prevention Research Implementation and Training Engagement (N-SPRITE) Centre on Tuesday, aligning with World Suicide Prevention Day.
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, among other dignitaries, was present at the launch. The initiative aims to develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent suicides and manage self-harm. The goal is to address the gaps in the current mental health infrastructure, which is often under-resourced and ill-equipped to handle the rising rates of suicide and self-harm across the country.
Recognising the deep-rooted stigma surrounding suicide, mental health, and self-harm, the centre will hold public education campaigns and community outreach programmes.
The N-SPRITE Centre will employ a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach combining research, training, and policy development to address the complex factors contributing to suicide and self-harm.
The research approach will employ a Theory-of-Change framework to guide its strategies, using realist evaluation methods to explore the contextual factors that influence the success of suicide prevention interventions. This approach ensures that solutions are practical, scalable, and sensitive to the cultural and social realities of India.