Courses for mental health caregivers

04.02.2016, Chennai: The National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) will start seven undergraduate and postgraduate courses that focus on specific disabilities like autism, deafness, blindness and speech impairment.

NIEPMD director Dr Himangshu Das said the courses, likely to begin by June, were being planned to meet the shortage of instructors for the specially-abled.
"In the beginning, our focus was on treating and empowering people with multiple disabilities. But we realised by doing that we were only reaching a small section. Training instructors will help us reach out to a wider population," said Dr Das.

The Institute now runs BEd and DEd courses for multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy and clinical psychology.

The 2011 census put India's disabled at 2.21% of the population. The highest rates of disability are amongst those who are vision-impaired, and those who have problems to do with movement.

The courses, Dr Das said, will be recognised by Tamil Nadu Dr MGR University and the Rehabilitation Council of India. The courses will focus on speech and hearing impairment, occupational therapy, autism, physiotherapy, multiple disabilities and visual impairment.