THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government\u2019s proposal to rename government-run Mental Health Centres as \u2018Centre for Happiness and Wellness\u2019 has triggered opposition from experts and the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), Keralam branch. The health department submitted the proposed name to the Kerala High Court after the court suggested renaming the institutions. <\/p>\n
However, mental health experts and the IPS have objected to the move, alleging that the government and the health minister\u2019s office took the decision without adequate consultation with stakeholders. The Kerala Government Medical Officers\u2019 Association has also urged the government to consider IPS\u2019 suggestions.<\/p>\n
According to government sources, the proposal was submitted to the court without adequate consultations within the Directorate of Health Services and the State Mental Health Authority. By the time IPS office-bearers met officials at the health minister\u2019s office, the proposal had already been submitted, sources said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have decided to become a party to the case,\u201d IPS state president Dr Sagar T told TNIE. \u201cWhile the objective behind renaming mental health institutions is to reduce stigma, merely changing their names will not address the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IPS has suggested names such as \u2018State Institute of Mental Health and Wellness\u2019 or \u2018Regional Institute of Psychiatry and Wellness\u2019. \u201cMental illness and wellness are two distinct concepts. Mental illness is caused by biological, biochemical, psychological, and social factors. Happiness is only one component of an individual\u2019s mental state,\u201d Sagar said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government\u2019s proposal to rename government-run Mental Health Centres as \u2018Centre for Happiness and Wellness\u2019 has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[354401,97,259,300089,260],"class_list":["post-836999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-happiness-and-wellness-proposal","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-experts","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}