Promoting wellbeing and improving access to mental health care through community champions in rural India: the Atmiyata intervention approach
Open accessAbstract
There are limited accounts of community-based interventions for reducing distress or providing support for people with common mental disorders (CMDs) in low and middle-income countries. The recently implemented Atmiyata programme is one such community-based mental health intervention focused on promoting wellness and reducing distress through community volunteers in a rural area in the state of Maharashtra, India. This case study describes the content and the process of implementation of Atmiyata and how community volunteers were trained to become Atmiyata champions and mitras (friends). The Atmiyata programme trained Atmiyata champions to provide support and basic counselling to community members with common mental health disorders, facilitate access to mental health care and social benefits, improve community awareness of mental health issues, and to promote well-being. Challenges to implementation included logistical challenges (difficult terrain and weather conditions at the implementation site), content-related challenges (securing social welfare benefits for people with CMDs), and partnership challenges (turnover of public health workers involved in referral chain, resistance from public sector mental health specialists). The case study serves as an example for how such a model can be sustained over time at low cost. The next steps of the programme include evaluation of the impact of the Atmiyata intervention through a pre-post study and adapting the intervention for further scale-up in other settings in India.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The Atmiyata program includes Android mobile applications, one for champions and one for the public, with e-learning videos and knowledge questions.
“The program also includes Android mobile applications, with one version for the Atmiyata champions and a separate version for the general public and community members. The mobile app contains basic e-learning videos on mental health for the Atmiyata champions with questions built into the app following each training video to test knowledge of mental health topics.”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
Atmiyata champions and mitras were provided smartphones to access videos for ongoing training and to refresh their knowledge and skills.
“Atmiyata champions and mitras were provided smartphones to access videos for ongoing training tools to learn about mental health concepts and to refresh their knowledge and skills.”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
The Atmiyata project was implemented in 41 villages in rural Maharashtra, India, and trained 59 champions and 264 mitras.
“This project was developed and implemented in 41 villages across rural Maharashtra, India. In total, 59 Atmiyata champions were trained and 264 Atmiyata Mitras were trained.”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
Atmiyata champions were trained to detect mental health problems, provide basic support and counseling, and facilitate referral to mental health professionals.
“The program involved training community volunteers as “Atmiyata champions” to support the detection of mental health problems, provide basic support and counseling to community members with common mental health disorders, and to facilitate referral to mental health professionals when necessary.”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
Low-cost digital tools were used in Atmiyata to enhance learning and feedback.
“Furthermore, low-cost digital tools were used to enhance learning and feedback.”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
Atmiyata is a community-based mental health program in rural India that trains and mobilizes community volunteers to promote wellness, raise awareness, and reduce distress.
“Atmiyata is a community-based mental health program focused on promoting wellness, raising awareness, and reducing distress by training and mobilizing community volunteers.24”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the Atmiyata program in rural India, basic educational videos were disseminated to community members via mobile applications on smartphones.
“In the Atmiyata program in a rural setting in India, basic educational videos were disseminated to community members using mobile applications accessible through a smartphone.24”
From Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Nonspecialist Health Workers for Task Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Social capital and mental illness: a systematic review
Silva, M. J. D., McKenzie, K. J., Harpham, T., & Huttly, S. R. A. (2005) · Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech.2004.029678 · Cited by 1,036 · see citing works
Rahman, A., Malik, A., Sikander, S., Roberts, C., & Creed, F. (2008) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(08)61400-2 · Cited by 993 · see citing works
Patel, V., Weiss, H. A., Chowdhary, N., Naik, S., Pednekar, S., Chatterjee, S., De Silva, M. J., Bhat, B., Araya, R., King, M., et al. (2010) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61508-5 · Cited by 752 · see citing works
Prost, A., Colbourn, T., Seward, N., Azad, K., Coomarasamy, A., Copas, A., Houweling, T., Fottrell, E., Kuddus, A., Lewycka, S., et al. (2013) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)60685-6 · Cited by 645 · see citing works
Joshi, R., Alim, M., Kengne, A. P., Jan, S., Maulik, P. K., Peiris, D., & Patel, A. A. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0103754 · Cited by 589 · see citing works
Tripathy, P., Nair, N., Barnett, S., Mahapatra, R., Borghi, J., Rath, S., Rath, S., Gope, R., Mahto, D., Sinha, R., et al. (2010) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(09)62042-0 · Cited by 497 · see citing works
Human resources for health in India
Rao, M., Rao, K. D., Kumar, A. S., Chatterjee, M., & Thiagarajan, S. (2011) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61888-0 · Cited by 491 · see citing works
Social capital and mental health
McKenzie, K. J. (2018) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/med/9780198792994.003.0014 · Cited by 451 · see citing works
Social capital and mental health
McKenzie, K., Whitley, R., & Weich, S. (2002) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.181.4.280 · Cited by 434 · see citing works
Mental health and development: targeting people with mental health conditions as a vulnerable group.
Funk, M. (2010) · Human Development Resource Network (HDRNet) · Cited by 423 · see citing works
Patel, V., Xiao, S., Chen, H., Hanna, F., Jotheeswaran, A. T., Luo, D., Parikh, R., Sharma, E., Usmani, S., Yu, Y., et al. (2016) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)00160-4 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
Chatterjee, S., Naik, S., John, S., Dabholkar, H., Balaji, M., Koschorke, M., Varghese, M., THARA, R., Weiss, H. A., Williams, P. R., et al. (2014) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)62629-x · Cited by 317 · see citing works
Stigma, depression, and somatization in South India
Raguram, R., Weiss, M. G., Channabasavanna, S. M., & Devins, G. M. (1996) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.153.8.1043 · Cited by 310 · see citing works
Strengthening mental health systems in low-and middle-income countries: the Emerald programme
Semrau, M., Evans-Lacko, S., Alem, A., Ayuso-Mateos, J. L., Chisholm, D., Gureje, O., Hanlon, C., Jordans, M., Kigozi, F., Lempp, H., et al. (2015) · BMC Medicine · doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0309-4 · Cited by 288 · see citing works
Prevalence of mental and behavioural disorders in India : a meta-analysis.
Reddy, V. M., & Chandrashekar, C. R. (1998) · PubMed · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Azad, K., Barnett, S., Banerjee, B., Shaha, S. K., Khan, K., Rego, A. R., Barua, S., Flatman, D., Pagel, C., Prost, A., et al. (2010) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60142-0 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Stigma and discrimination as a barrier to mental health service utilization in India
Shidhaye, R., & Kermode, M. (2013) · International Health · doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihs011 · Cited by 191 · see citing works
Experiences of stigma and discrimination of people with schizophrenia in India
Koschorke, M., Padmavati, R., Kumar, S., Cohen, A., Weiss, H. A., Chatterjee, S., Pereira, J., Naik, S., John, S., Dabholkar, H., et al. (2014) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.035 · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Chowdhary, N., Anand, A., Dimidjian, S., Shinde, S., Weobong, B., Balaji, M., Hollon, S. D., Rahman, A., Wilson, G. T., Verdeli, H., et al. (2015) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.114.161075 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Balaji, M., Chatterjee, S., Koschorke, M., Rangaswamy, T., Chavan, A., Dabholkar, H., Dakshin, L., Kumar, P., John, S., Thornicroft, G., et al. (2012) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/1472-6963-12-42 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
India mental health country profile
Khandelwal, S. K., Jhingan, H. P., Ramesh, S., Gupta, R. K., & Srivastava, V. K. (2004) · International Review of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/09540260310001635177 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Epidemiological findings on prevalence of mental disorders in India.
Ganguli, H. C. (2000) · PubMed · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Petersen, I., Bhana, A., & Baillie, K. (2011) · Community Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10597-011-9429-2 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Stigmatization of severe mental illness in India: Against the simple industrialization hypothesis
Jadhav, S., Littlewood, R., Ryder, A. G., Chakraborty, A., Jain, S., & Barua, M. (2007) · Indian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.4103/0019-5545.37320 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Charles, H. S., Manoranjitham, S. D., & Jacob, K. S. (2007) · International Journal of Social Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/0020764006074538 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Sikander, S., Lazarus, A., Bangash, O., Fuhr, D. C., Weobong, B., Krishna, R. N., Ahmad, I., Weiss, H. A., Price, L., Rahman, A., et al. (2015) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-015-1063-9 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
The development of mental health services within primary care in India: learning from oral history
van Ginneken, N., Jain, S., Patel, V., & Berridge, V. S. (2014) · International Journal of Mental Health Systems · doi:10.1186/1752-4458-8-30 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Scaling up services for mental and neurological disorders in low-resource settings
Patel, V., Goel, D. S., & Desai, R. (2009) · International Health · doi:10.1016/j.inhe.2009.02.002 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
van Ginneken, N., Tharyan, P., Lewin, S. A., Rao, G. N., Romeo, R., & Patel, V. (2011) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd009149 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
National mental health programme: Manpower development scheme of eleventh five-year plan
Sinha, S., & Kaur, J. (2011) · Indian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.4103/0019-5545.86821 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Pereira, B., Andrew, G., Pednekar, S., Kirkwood, B. R., & Patel, V. (2011) · International Journal of Mental Health Systems · doi:10.1186/1752-4458-5-26 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Global, national, and local approaches to mental health: examples from India
Weiss, M. G., Isaac, M., Parkar, S. R., Chowdhury, A. N., & Raguram, R. (2001) · Tropical Medicine & International Health · doi:10.1046/j.1365-3156.2001.00670.x · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Thirunavukarasu, M. (2011) · Indian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.4103/0019-5545.86803 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Maulik, P. K., Devarapalli, S., Kallakuri, S., Praveen, D., Jha, V., & Patel, A. A. (2015) · Cambridge Prisms Global Mental Health · doi:10.1017/gmh.2015.11 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
An introduction to sadharanikaran model of communication
Adhikary, N. M. (1970) · Bodhi An Interdisciplinary Journal · doi:10.3126/bodhi.v3i1.2814 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
The Sadharanikaran Model and Aristotle's Model of Communication: A Comparative Study
Adhikary, N. M. (1970) · Bodhi An Interdisciplinary Journal · doi:10.3126/bodhi.v2i1.2877 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Kola, L., Kohrt, B. A., Hanlon, C., Naslund, J. A., Sikander, S., Balaji, M., Benjet, C., Cheung, E. Y. L., Eaton, J., Gonsalves, P., et al. (2021) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00025-0 · Cited by 835 · see citing works
Self-citationRaviola, G., Naslund, J. A., Smith, S. L., & Patel, V. (2019) · Current Psychiatry Reports · doi:10.1007/s11920-019-1028-x · Cited by 258 · see citing works
Naslund, J. A., Shidhaye, R., & Patel, V. (2019) · Harvard Review of Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/hrp.0000000000000217 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Digital Mental Health: The Answer to the Global Mental Health Crisis?
Rudd, B. N., & Beidas, R. S. (2020) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/18472 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Longitudinal assessment of an anti-stigma campaign related to common mental disorders in rural India
Maulik, P. K., Devarapalli, S., Kallakuri, S., Tripathi, A. P., Koschorke, M., & Thornicroft, G. (2019) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.2018.190 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Bibliometric Analysis and Methodological Review of Mobile Health Services and Applications in India
Pai, R. R., & Alathur, S. (2021) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104330 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Joag, K., Ambrosio, G., Kestler, E., Weijer, C., Hemming, K., & Van der Graaf, R. (2019) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-019-3842-1 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Self-citationSiddiqui, S., Gonsalves, P. P., & Naslund, J. A. (2022) · Mental Health in a Digital World · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-822201-0.00004-6 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Shields-Zeeman, L., Pathare, S., Walters, B. H., Kapadia-Kundu, N., & Joag, K.
- Affiliations
- Trimbos Institute (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Joag, Kaustubh
- Venue
- International Journal of Mental Health Systems
- Published
- 2017-01-04
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6-6
- ISSN
- 1752-4458 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5210275
- OpenAlex
- W2566490212
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 12.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- International Journal of Mental Health Systems (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- Grand Challenges Canada (0327-04)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Keywords
- community-based mental health interventions, community volunteers, common mental disorders, distress reduction, access to mental health care, rural mental health, mental health awareness, welfare benefits, referral chain, implementation barriers, low-cost interventions, Maharashtra
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
