Health initiatives through a two-day training program for doctors and community workers have been taken up by a few community workers to meet the medical requirements of socially and economically backward groups.

The program is based on ‘mental health and community' which is an initiative by The Family Planning Association of India (FPAI), along with the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM).

The workshop has been held to educate the people about family health and welfare, and to empower women to make their own choice regarding bearing children and reproduction.

About thirty community workers are being trained through the workshop to enable them to understand the medical and psycho-social status of mental health and the different remedies.

In contrast to the ‘crisis intervention' approach that is taken up by most urban mental health care institutions, the program resorted to identify people at initial stages of mental illness and treat them then and there. The biggest concern in rural areas especially is the lack of human medical resources as well as access to proper health care units. Therefore, localised health care institutions will reduce the burden of hospitals to a great extent.