Public-private partnerships to improve access to mental healthcare in India

Abstract

In India, there are many public-private partnership programmes that aim to improve healthcare for patients with non-communicable diseases. However, only a few exist for patients with mental illness. The success stories of such collaborations that do exist in mental health are minimal and remain an exemplar for learning. These partnership programmes have facilitated increased access to mental healthcare to some extent; nonetheless, there is still a need to address barriers, such as improving the regulatory and financial support for these programmes. Despite shortcomings, some concepts from these collaborations will pave the way to sustain such collaborations in the future. Public-private partnerships may offer a potential opportunity to improve the standard of mental healthcare in India.