Samikshani pioneers the integrated approach of addressing mental distress as a psycho-social phenomenon, thereby combining awareness programmes, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic skills to address the issue. In order to achieve these objectives, training of mental health professionals is the foundation of sustaining the services provided. Samikshani, therefore, also offers a variety of training p
rogrammes for aspirants of mental health professionals – psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and psychometrists, providing services at lower costs, and striving to ensure high quality of services through a team approach. Till date it has remained an organization voluntary in spirit, because its members contribute to the organizational affairs on a voluntary basis. Samikshani has an elected Executive Body (the Parshad), and a general body of about 80 members, most of whom are mental health professionals, and a few support staff. Its membership is also open to any person interested in promoting the cause of mental health. Thus there are professionals from other walks of life who lend their support to Samikshani’s activities in order to promote the cause of mental health. Samikshani’s objectives include raising awareness about mental health among people across class, gender and literacy levels and make mental health facilities available at low cost or no-cost to people in general. This preventive-cum-remedial strategy is especially challenging in the Indian context, where stigma against mental disorders runs high across the population and poverty pushes treatment further down the line of priority.
