Visakhapatnam :

City-based doctor and professor of Andhra Medical College ( AMC ) Dr N N Raju, who is also the superintendent of Government Hospital for Mental Care, Visakhapatnam, has been nominated to the five-member expert panel of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi.

PHFI, headed by Dr Srinath Reddy from Delhi, is said to be the biggest health organisation in the country that works on various projects in collaboration with the government, industrial organisations and international NGOs. It helps building institutional capacity in India for strengthening education, training, research and policy development in the domain of public health.

“The prevalence of mental illness is almost 10% and it’s estimated that one-third of those attending general physicians suffer from emotional disorders resulting in incapacitation. The objective of this nomination is to build the capacity of primary care physicians and general doctors on the evidence-based management of mental disorders. We would be concentrating on the grassroots level, upgradation of primary health centres through training of the staff,” said Dr Raju, who has 25 years of experience in teaching, training and administration.

He will be involved in formulating policies of empowering primary health centres (PHC) all over the country in dealing with mental illness.

Besides Dr Raju, the four other members in the expert panel include Dr Sabita Malhotra from Chandigarh, Dr Asim Malik from West Bengal , Dr Jaggibala from Surat and Dr Indira Sharma from Benaras Hindu University.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam> Primary Health Centres / by TNN / August 20th, 2013