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Sangath
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parenting interventions for
children
with autism. Inclusive education
in schools. Transforming the school
environment to promote young people’s mental
health. Supporting older adults struggling with
chronic diseases. Providing therapy for harmful
alcohol consumption and depression. All these
are innovative health interventions designed
by the pathbreaking organization, Sangath,
catalysing equitable access to mental health, and
transforming the narrative of fear and shame
around mental health conditions..
‘Sangath began with the establishment
of a child guidance clinic to serve children
with developmental disabilities and their
families in Goa. A realisation dawned that
this specialist-led, clinic-based traditional
approach was modelled on services available
in wealthy countries, but seemed a poor fit in
the context of India with its massive scale of
unmet needs, compounded by the scarcity and
cost of specialists,’ says Professor Vikram Patel,
Co-Founder & Managing Committee Member,
Sangath.
To address this, the NGO developed a
model of psychosocial interventions to suit
Indian realities, delivered by community
health workers and lay counsellors, which
are then evaluated in world-class clinical and
Anganwadis become courtyards of learning about maternal
and child health
Following pages (118–119)
: Over cot and chai:
community collaborations between supervisors and trained
frontline counsellors are the cornerstones of capacity building
Founded by a group of child development
and mental health professionals in 1996
Sangath endeavours to make quality
mental health care accessible and
affordable for all, by addressing mental
health concerns through innovations
including deploying community
resources, digital technology, and
stakeholder participation. With its
headquarters in Goa, two major hubs
in Bhopal and New Delhi, and field
offices in various sites, Sangath has
worked across India. Sangath won the
MacArthur Foundation’s International
Prize for Creative and Effective
Institutions in 2008 and the WHO
Public Health Champion of India
award in 2016.