MAPUSA
“If we implement the treatment we have developed in government Primary Health Centres in the long run it will end up in saving money,” Dr Nadkarni said.
Elaborating on the findings of the study conducted in a span of five years (October 2010 to September 2016), Dr Nadkarni said the intervention/treatment developed by the NGO people mainly focused on two problems “ people suffering from depression and people with drinking problem.
“We found people, who received our treatment were more likely to remit from their depression or get completely better. Similarly, people who were into drinking habit were more likely to stop drinking, as compared to those who did receive the treatment,” he said.
Sangath implemented the programme in collaboration with the Directorate of Health Services (DHS).
The NGO was looking forward to scale up the project and expand it to entire Goa.
“We plan to continue working with DHS to see if we can now ensure that a larger number of people get access to treatment we have developed,” the co-director said.
He said Sangath was in the process of trying to get funding for the project to scale up the treatment across entire Goa to all primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs).
“If that happens, people in entire Goa, who have depression or drinking problems can access e-services and treatments closer to their homes,” he said.
He said the government was ready to allow the NGO to scale the treatment to all PHCs and CHCs in Goa provided the group took care of the funding.
“Government of Goa and DHS have always been extremely supportive partners in all the works that we have done and we wouldn’t have been able to provide these services to the people of Goa without their support,” Dr Nadkarni said.
