Six mental health and medical organisations from India and the U.K. have come together to launch “Humanising Medicine India Initiative” in line with World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10.
The organisations are India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA), the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), Indian Teachers of Psychiatry, World Psychiatric Association Zone 15, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (UK), and Accept Support Help Another (ASHA Kerala), according to a press release.
Kavita Arora, founding cohort, IMHA, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, and Co-founder at Children First said, “It is a national initiative aimed at fostering a culture in which medical professionals can acknowledge their own lived experiences of mental health challenges, disabilities, distress, caregiving, grief, and seek support without fear or stigma. The initiative reflects this year’s World Mental Health Day theme of ‘Lived experiences heard: Real voices, real change,” she said.
An Indian meta-analysis found depressive symptoms in approximately one in two undergraduate medical students. A study of resident doctors and faculty at a tertiary-care hospital found that 30.1% screened positive for depression and more than 90% experienced some level of burnout, the release said.
The initiative includes a national survey to explore the lived experiences of medical professionals and barriers to help seeking, a three-part national webinar series on doctors’ wellbeing open to all medical professionals and institutional leaders and a national in-person workshop at the IPS’s annual conference in Madurai in January 2027.
An individual ‘Care for Self Pledge’, encouraging doctors to recognise and care for their own wellbeing without shame, and a ‘Culture of Care Charter’, through which pan Indian institutions will formally commit to creating safer environments for conversations around lived experiences and help-seeking will be framed.
T.S. Sathyanarayana Rao, president, IPS, said, “As psychiatrists, we often support others through their struggles, yet our own journeys of resilience, vulnerability, hope, and healing are equally important.”
Subodh Dave, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK) said, “Doctors bring not only their training, knowledge and clinical experience to medicine, but also their lived experience of being human. We want to create a culture where caring for oneself is understood as part of caring for others, and where seeking help is seen as compatible with being a good doctor.”
Published – October 08, 2026 09:15 pm IST
