Archive · 25 Sep 2026
India Pilots BRICS Mental-Health Network With Digital Community Care
Many people with mental-health problems cannot easily find care or may feel ashamed to ask for help.
A new BRICS network, led for its pilot phase by India, aims to make support easier to reach.
It will connect experts and health centres from several countries.
The countries will share ideas such as educational manga, online crisis help, screening tools and telehealth.
Health workers who are not mental-health specialists may be trained to recognise problems and guide people to care.
The network also wants to bring services into ordinary primary-health clinics and rural communities.
Researchers may study tools such as artificial intelligence and digital interventions.
The goal is not to copy one country’s system, but to adapt useful ideas to different communities.
The network is still being organised, with India’s NIMHANS helping establish its rules and structure.
India will pilot a BRICS network linking mental-health Centres of Excellence across member countries.
The network aims to integrate mental-health services into primary care and expand support in rural and underserved areas.
Participating countries are sharing approaches including educational manga, crisis platforms, screening tools, telehealth and technology-assisted treatment.
Planned collaboration includes AI-assisted screening, suicide prevention, digital interventions, research, training and culturally adaptable public-education tools.
The network is still being operationalised, with NIMHANS developing governance arrangements and a multi-country steering committee being formed.
- Who
- India, NIMHANS and mental-health Centres of Excellence from BRICS countries are involved.
- What
- India is piloting a BRICS mental-health network focused on shared research, training, digital tools and primary-care integration.
- When
- The network is currently being operationalised; the article also cites India’s 2017 mental-health estimates and projected losses through 2030.
- Where
- Across BRICS countries, with particular attention to rural, hard-to-reach and underserved communities.
- Why
- To reduce mental-health treatment gaps, address stigma and shortages of specialists, and bring support closer to communities.
- Pilot country
- India
- Coordinating centre
- NIMHANS
- Network focus
- Primary-care integration, workforce training and collaborative research
- Examples from member countries
- China’s educational manga, Indonesia’s 24×7 digital platform, South Africa’s pictorial screening and the UAE’s virtual-reality interventions
- India treatment gap
- Estimated at 70% to 92% in the cited figures
- India mental-health burden
- An estimated 197.3 million people were affected in 2017
- Projected economic losses
- Mental-health conditions in India were projected to cause USD 1.03 trillion in losses between 2012 and 2030