The allied and healthcare professionals bill, 2018: A regression (in disguise) for psychology and mental health professionals

Pages: 1025-1027
Isha Yadav (Department of Psychology, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh)

In light of the growing demand of a regulatory framework for allied healthcare services in India, the Allied and Healthcare Professionals Bill, 2018, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December 2018. The bill seeks to regulate and standardize education, training and services of allied healthcare professionals in the country. The bill recognizes the Behavioural Health Science Professionals as one among the fifteen categories of professionals delineated by it. It, thus, brings psychologists, counsellors, behavioural analysts and mental health support workers within the ambit of the bill to be governed by the Allied and Healthcare Council of India. This paper argues that, despite being a progressive step for allied healthcare professions, the bill fails to appreciate mental healthcare as a mainstream field in itself rather than a mere allied field. It fails to recognize the enormity of the mental health crisis in India and is extremely restrictive in its biomedical approach to psychology and allied areas. The paper suggests that, instead of subsuming mental healthcare underthe Allied and Healthcare Council, the need of the hour is to establish a full-fledged National Council of Psychology to meet the massive challenge of mental healthcare facing our country.