Challenges for the implementation of the Mental Health Care Act 2017

I was extremely delighted to read Duffy & Kelly's editorial drawing attention to the National Mental Health Survey of India 2015–2016 and India's Mental Health Care Act 2017.¹ The Indian government states that the new Mental Health Care Act will give access to mental healthcare to all sections of society. The government also intends to ‘integrate mental health services into general healthcare’. As India has a large population of 1.3 billion people there might be certain difficulties in implementing the Act.

As we all are aware, there is a dearth of psychiatrists and mental health staff to cater for the needs of the large population. We also know that there are remedies and treatments available in Ayurveda and other traditional methods that are practised in India. I would like to ask the authors' view about how they would recommend the Indian government and the Indian Psychiatric Society addresses the needs of people with mental illness when there is a big treatment gap across the country. It will also be challenging to incorporate the Mental Health Care Act for remedies and management options provided by Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, siddha and homeopathy establishments in the coming days. What would be the authors' view about how India, with a diverse culture, can align its mental health services so that they are at par with higher-income economic countries.