Manas Foundation
We have been working in India since 1992. Paul Hamlyn spent time in India and wanted to help communities there. It is the only place we fund outside the UK. We continue to work with local organisations in priority geographical areas, giving grants to local NGOs for health, education, shelter, support for people with disabilities, and other social development activities.
Based in Delhi, Manas Foundation promotes mental health and gender justice. Their work aims to embed mental health provision in private and public facilities. This creates accessible and affordable mental health services for the most vulnerable. Monica Kumar, founder member and managing trustee, says: “When we started the organisation we realised we didn’t want to create new institutions. We wanted to plug in mental health services to the other critical interventions. How do we mainstream mental health? That was our thought when we started.” Monica explains that mental health was stigmatised and understood only in medical terms when Manas Foundation formed more than 20 years ago. In contrast, she says, “We felt we would follow more of a psychosocial route than a medical route and look at the whole person.”
The organisation offers many services, including counselling by licensed clinical psychologists and trained mental health professionals. It also provides training and education initiatives for local schools.
In 2018 Manas Foundation launched their Community Action Mental Health Programme in Dausa, a small district in Rajasthan (CAMP Dausa). Supported by PHF, CAMP Dausa augments the government mental health programme, making help accessible and affordable to people who need it. Monica says the programme’s aim is to create “a model district mental health programme that others can replicate.”
CAMP Dausa’s activities are wide ranging. The programme’s psychologists support the District Mental Health Programme by counselling patients referred by doctors in hospital. They also see patients at CAMP Dausa’s own Mental Health Unit (MHU) in the district. On an average working day a psychologist might see 12 or 13 people at the hospital and the MHU.
The CAMP Dausa team works with the Chief Medical Health Officer to raise awareness about mental health amongst frontline health workers. This includes mental health awareness workshops at primary and community health centres. The team also works with the Chief District Education Officer, making mental health services accessible to students. Psychologists visit schools in Dausa every week to provide counselling services and conduct mental health awareness workshops.
Four years in, and CAMP Dausa is having an impact. Harleen Kaur, CAMP Dausa Programme Manager, says: “People are now walking up to the district hospital and saying ‘I need mental health services’.”
