Presenteeism: The Invisible Leviathan of Organizational Psychology.

The burgeoning field of organizational psychological medicine identifies presenteeism, the practice of attending work while medically or psychologically unwell, as a complex factor influencing workplace health and overall organizational performance. This article examines presenteeism's many facets, focusing on how it affects the Indian labor force and how it increased during the COVID-19 epidemic, particularly in the field of healthcare. Utilizing data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and global surveys, the paper elucidates that an alarming percentage of the workforce abstains from utilizing entitled vacations, often leading to presenteeism. The article also probes the paradoxical aspect of presenteeism through the lens of "workaholism," arguing that while presenteeism may offer short-term psychological benefits such as boosting self-esteem or serving as a distraction from personal ailments, it is detrimental in the long term, impacting both individual health and organizational productivity. Recent surveys from the United Kingdom cited within the article indicate that presenteeism has tripled over the last decade, exacerbating health outcomes and compromising economic viability. Contributing factors are delineated, distinguishing between organizational imperatives such as financial penalties for absenteeism and individual motivations like job insecurity. The article ends by putting forward a multifaceted plan to mitigate the adverse consequences of presenteeism. The implementation of compassionate leadership, the adoption of flexible work practices, and the introduction of comprehensive employee well-being initiatives are among the key suggestions. Supervisors should also be trained in the identification and management of presenteeism. The article concludes by emphasizing the critical importance of strategic investment in human resources as a sustainable solution for curbing the detrimental impact of presenteeism on organizations.

The Legality and Ethical Issues of Certifying Laypersons as Mental Health Counselors in India.

Background: The burden of mental health conditions and consequent disability impacts are felt most in low- and middle-income settings. These settings are constrained by the limited availability of resources to provide even essential aspects of mental health care (MHC). Task shifting and sharing interventions have shown promise in delivering community-based MHC across such low-resource settings. Some counseling tasks such as friendship bench interventions have been successfully shifted to laypersons. However, ethical and legal concerns regarding laypersons' incorporation in MHC delivery systems have not been examined. Purpose: To examine the ethical and legal concerns surrounding the certification of laypersons as community-based mental health counselors. Method: We undertook an academic review of various legislations pertinent to MHC service delivery and the certification of allied health care professionals to inform on acceptable and tenable strategies toward incorporating such a task-shifted intervention. Conclusion: Scaling up the training of human resources to address access problems can be the first step in addressing the MHC access and treatment gaps. The certification of laypersons as community-based mental health counselors, although legally tenuous, can be pioneered by tertiary-level MHC institutions. This certification has sound ethical justification and is a progressive step toward realizing universal mental health coverage.

A camp approach of community psychiatry in India: Past, present, and the future.

Camps are a popular approach to deliver medical care in India. While it is usually a one-off event for physical ailments, it is a long-term affair in Psychiatry. One of the first camps in psychiatry was rolled out as early as in 1967 at Mandar, Ranchi, followed by Raipur Rani (Haryana) in 1976 and at Gunjur, Karnataka in 1977. This camp approach became extremely popular and got expanded across India as they were thought to be synonymous with community-based outreach for mental illnesses. In the past 5 years, however, newer models of community care have emerged, necessitating a relook at this traditional approach. In this paper, the authors trace the origin, utility and future directions of these camps, taking data from community psychiatry camps conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, a premier neuropsychiatric tertiary care institute in India. Data have been collated from the annual reports of the Institute, database from the District Mental health Program, Government of Karnataka, India, and compared with published literature on the same field. While camps remain as one of the important avenues to reach the unreached, there is a need to change the approach of their functioning by incorporating training (primary care providers) aspects and collaborative care. The latter may make the initiative more meaningful and sustainable.

Video consultations with "Paper and Pen" health record: A path-breaking solution to troubleshoot acceptability of telemedicine practice in developing countries.

Telemedicine is the delivery of health care from a distance. It also includes research and evaluation of such services using health data which are stored in "Electronic Health Record" (EHR) platforms. EHR has proved to be useful in monitoring health care delivery but setting up of such platforms is tedious and resource-consuming in developing countries. With the recent surge of telemedicine utility during the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has emerged to be pivotal in reaching stranded patients needing care without EHR-based practice. The practice of patient health record (PHR)-based teleconsultations in India has demonstrated how a conventional "paper and pen" method can be combined to popularise telemedicine utility. Thus, use of PHR-based system to maintain health records would prove to be a pragmatic solution for physicians in low-resource settings to improve their reach to a larger population in need for the future.

Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Her Role in District Mental Health Program: Learnings from the COVID 19 Pandemic.

COVID 19 pandemic has posed challenges for public mental healthcare delivery, particularly in LAMI countries such as India. However, this unique situation has also brought in opportunities to revisit the health system and optimally utilize the available resources. In this brief report, we report one such new initiative in which existing community health workers (CHWs), known as ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activist) acted as a bridge between patients with mental illness and the District Mental Health Program (DMHP) of Ramanagara district of Karnataka State, India. They maintained continuity of care of 76 patients by delivering mental healthcare services to the patients' doorstep. This has paved the way to rethink and revisit their role in public mental healthcare delivery not only during COVID 19 times, but also beyond.