About Us
Nishkam Foundation is a non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) working in the field of Mental Health and Drug Abuse. Working on a mission to empower and enable the community for promotion and restoration of mental health, we at Nishkam Foundation are cherishing a dream of contributing towards the mental health of our 1.2 billion strong community in India by developing and implementing community based innovative strategies and progammes in the field of mental health and drug abuse. We adopt a bottom up approach in which we think from the community perspective and act in the community context. We engage the community in mental health programmes and put community resources in use for the mental health of people in the community. We facilitate a process of people taking responsibility of their own mental health.
Vision
To be an organization for innovations in the field of community mental health in India.
Mission
Enabling community for promotion and restoration of mental health of individuals and families.
Aims & Objects
Overall Aim
To contribute towards promotion and restoration of mental health of people in India and towards prevention, control and treatment of drug abuse problems in India by community capacity building for implementation of community based interventions utilizing community resources and organizational networks.
Specific Objects
- To evolve strategies for development and implementation of community based interventions in the field of mental health and drug abuse prevention and treatment in accordance with community resources and contexts in various parts of India.
- To approach various stakeholders in the identified communities for engaging them in community based interventions for improvement in mental health, and prevention, control and treatment of drug abuse problems in those communities.
- To provide technical support for capacity building in the identified communities for implementation of appropriate mental health and drug abuse prevention and treatment interventions that are feasible within locally available resources and community contexts.
- To provide technical support to various community based organizations and other stakeholders in the community for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of community based interventions for the promotion and restoration of mental health and for prevention, control and treatment of drug abuse problems in the community.
- To collaborate with community based organizations and stakeholders to achieve the objectives of the society.
- To collaborate with other organizations and individuals engaged in or capable of engaging in similar activities in the field of mental health and drug abuse.
- To appraise, document, and disseminate the activities and achievements of the society and bring about appropriate modifications from time to time to enhance/improve the quality and impact of the activities of the society.
- To conduct research, hold seminars, workshops, training programs and conferences, organize and promote exhibitions and other activities for furtherance of the interests and objectives of the society.
- To raise the funds for carrying out operations of the society in a non-profit manner.
- To acquire by purchases, donations, gifts or otherwise any movable and or immovable properties, rights, interests and titles in the interest of the Society and its objects and to manage them.
- To do all things as are incidental and conductive to the attainment of the above objectives or any of them.
- All the incomes, earnings, movable or immovable properties of the Society shall be solely utilized and applied towards the promotion of its Aims and Objectives only as set forth in the Memorandum of the Society and no profit thereof shall be paid or transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividends, bonus, profits or in any manner whatsoever to the present or the past members of the Society or to any person claiming through any one or more of the present or the past members. No member of the Society shall have any personal claim on any movable or immovable properties of the society or make any profits, whatsoever, by virtue of this membership.
Mission
- Overall approach – Service with Sahaj Nishkam Bhav which means Selfless (Nishkam) service (Sewa) carried out spontaneously (Sahaj). Sahaj Nishkam Bhav Sewa shall be rendered Yathayogyata (as per qualification), Yathakshamata (as per capabilities) and Yathaparisthiti (as per circumstances).
- Multilateral collaborations- Among individuals, organizations and institutions, both government and non-government, for ensuring comprehensive community mental health programmes.
- Community Ownership-Ownership with the community through various stakeholders in the community (Micro-ownership and Collective-ownership).
- Community Resources- Maximum resources from within the community while keeping outside resources to the minimum.
- Community Systems- Using existing community networks, frameworks and systems with appropriate modifications for capacity building, empowerment and enabling.
- Frugality- Effective but frugal or economical use of resources (prabhavkari parantu mitvyayi)
- Flexibility-In approach without compromising with the basic principles
- Financial Support-No funding from pharmaceutical or health care industry to Nishkam Foundation
Strategic Thrusts
- Improving help seeking behaviour of people with mental illnesses or families with mentally ill person - Emphasis is given on
(i) Stigma Reduction
(ii) Mental Health Awareness (Mansik Jagrukta)
(iii)Positive Mental Health (Mansik Sakaratmakta)
(iv) Help Seeking Attitude (Mansik Swasthya Labh Pravriti) - Making services available at the doorstep of people-Services that are effective, 'evidence' based, and are available, accessible, affordable, and acceptable.
- Capacity building – Capacity development of all stakeholders- psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, General/family physicians, non-mental health specialists, paramedical health workers, non-allopathic formal health care providers, non-formal health care providers including faith healers, community leaders, key persons, community volunteers, NGOs/CBOs, health administrators.
- Documentation, dissemination- To gather, document and disseminate evidence for generalization and advocacy
- Engaging communities- in the programmes and activities related to mental health
- Engaging mental health professionals- in community based mental health interventions
- Ensuring financial viability- for sustenance of community mental health initiatives
Governing Body
Year 2017-18
- President: Dr. Dhanesh Kumar Gupta
- Vice-President: Dr. Sham Sunder Gupta
- General Secretary: Dr. Ramesh Kumar Goyal
- Treasurer: Dr. Devesh Aggarwal
- Members:
- Sh. Hari Goyal
- Sh. Rajinder Kumar
- Dr. Ramesh Kumar Singh
- Dr. Virender Kumar Bansal
- Dr. Rajashree Pradhan
The Way We Work
- Community Based Approach: Fundamental to all our programmes and activities is adopting 'Community Based Approach'for promotion and restoration of mental health of people and for prevention and control of drug & alcohol abuse. We differentiate community based approach from hospital or clinic based approach as an approach in which the overall health services are planned in the context and from the perspective of the community, with any clinic or hospital being just one of an array of institutions, organizations, facilities, and people involved in the health services. This is in contrast to approach of providing services through 'hospital with a catchment area'.
- Ground level operations: Potential effectiveness of the approach of providing mental health through primary health care and community participation has been well known for last four decades. Nishkam Foundation adopts the same approach but differs in its operations. It envisages demonstrating as to how appropriate consideration of ground level realities and factors in planning and implementation of public mental health programs can lead to programmes with better outcome and impact. The variety of backgrounds that our founder members come from will add to the veracity in the ground level operations.
- Community ownership: The major emphasis of the approach will be to identify all the relevant stakeholders and pass on the ownership of community based interventions to these stakeholders. Nishkam Foundation focusses mainly on providing technical support rather than direct services which should be provided by primary health care providers with some support from regional level secondary health care providers, to follow the above stated approach faithfully. It will identify stakeholders, motivate them to initiate the interventions, provide technical support to them for planning, implementing and monitoring the interventions in the field of mental health and drug abuse.
- Pilot Projects: We carry out demonstration or pilot projects aimed at ensuring availability of mental health services and services for drug abuse treatment and prevention by capacity building in the communities. Experience gained through pilot projects in one region will be documented and disseminated to the potential stakeholders in the other regions. However, appropriate modifications will be made for every region at the time of replication or wider level application of those pilot projects as the stakeholders, community resources, existing health care systems and networks, and other ground level factors may vary across the regions.
- Focus areas: We are currently focusing on mental health services; later we can go into other areas such as mental health promotion, mental well-being, positive mental health, health and behaviour etc. depending on response from our partners
- Levels of involvement: Depending on degree of our involvement we plan to carry out activities at three levels
- Level 1- Direct- Execution of the project directly by Nishkam Foundation through collaboration with local organizations. Usually these are demonstration/pilot projects e.g. Current programmes in Sangariaand Hanumangarh (Raj.)
- Level 2 – Providing technical support- throughout the project to a mental health programme carried out by community organization(s)
- Level 3 - Technical & advisory role – Technical and advisory support to a mental health professional who may carry out the programme in collaboration with local community organizations.