{"id":76438,"date":"2025-05-05T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/76438\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:29:11","slug":"karnataka-launches-human-library-for-mental-health-awareness-bengaluru-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/76438\/","title":{"rendered":"Karnataka launches \u2018Human Library\u2019 for mental health awareness | Bengaluru News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Karnataka-launches-Human-Library-for-mental-health-awareness.jpg\" alt=\"Karnataka launches \u2018Human Library\u2019 for mental health awareness\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> Bengaluru: In an effort to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, the National Health Mission (NHM) in Karnataka has introduced \u2018Manas Samvaadha: Human Library&#8217;, a novel intervention in India.<br \/>While the \u2018Human Library&#8217; concept is established in Europe and elsewhere, this marks its first formal application in an Indian public mental health programme.<br \/>The pilot programme currently operates in Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, and Chikkaballapur districts. Individuals with lived experiences of mental health conditions serve as &#8220;books&#8221;, sharing their personal narratives with &#8220;readers&#8221; in open, respectful, and structured environments.<br \/>&#8220;The \u2018Human Library&#8217; concept, originally developed in Denmark, is being implemented in India for the first time through this initiative. We have successfully identified 30 \u2018books&#8217; (individuals with lived mental health experience) and established 15 libraries for Human Library sessions,&#8221; said NHM Karnataka MD Naveen Bhat.<br \/>He added: &#8220;Eight individuals have already been sharing their experiences in Doddaballapur since last week. Sessions in other districts will commence within a week.&#8221; The initiative aims to create safe spaces for dialogue, help communities challenge stereotypes, and encourage early help-seeking behaviour.<br \/>As part of efforts to communicate mental health issues and possible interventions, a street play was organised at Kantankunte in Doddaballapur, where 89 ITI students attended and 19 subsequently participated as \u2018readers&#8217;.<br \/>To enhance community engagement, the street play campaign is expected to expand across other taluks.<br \/>Officials indicated the next phase will focus on more comprehensive training for \u2018books&#8217; and preparation for \u2018readers&#8217;, ensuring sessions are conducted in a sensitive and confidential atmosphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bengaluru: In an effort to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, the National Health Mission (NHM) in Karnataka&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[7593,7592,7594,7595,105,37654,37653,218,19672,37652,37651,7596,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-76438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-bengaluru-latest-news","9":"tag-bengaluru-news","10":"tag-bengaluru-news-live","11":"tag-bengaluru-news-today","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-human-library-concept","14":"tag-karnataka-human-library","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-mental-health-awareness","17":"tag-mental-health-stigma","18":"tag-national-health-mission-karnataka","19":"tag-today-news-bengaluru","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114455233372151923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}