PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
This article is part of the Research TopicTackling Non-Communicable Diseases and Epidemiological Transition in Low- and Middle-Income CountriesView all 8 articles
Proposing a Case for Integration of Screening and Management of Mental Disorders, including Substance Use Disorders with other Non-Communicable Diseases Care: A Prologue to the ICMR MINDS Project in Faridabad District of Haryana
Provisionally accepted
YATAN PAL SINGH BALHARA1*
Siddharth Sarkar1
Hitesh Verma2Kuldeep Singh2Gerish Atri3Om Pal Singh Saini3Hanspreet Kang3
ASHOO GROVER4
Pulkit Verma4
Neha Dahiya4- 1All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
- 2DGHS Office Punchkula, Punchkula, India
- 3NHM Panchkula, Haryana, Punchkula, India
- 4Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India
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Mental disorders, including substance use disorders (MSUDs) and other Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) together contribute substantially to morbidity, mortality, and economic burden in India. Faridabad district in Haryana is one of the most populous and health system– challenged districts. It exemplifies the urgent need for integrated approaches to address these conditions. Evidence highlights the bidirectional association between MSUDs and NCDs. The Government of India's National Programme for Prevention & Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), a flagship under the National Health Mission, offers an opportunity to integrate MSUD care into existing service delivery frameworks. Leveraging its established infrastructure, resources, and wide population reach can help improve the care delivery for MSUD. Integrating MSUD into NP-NCD aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 3.4. The Indian Council of Medical Research's MINDS project in Faridabad district aims to operationalize this integration by implementing and evaluating a scalable service delivery model across 116 health facilities. The initiative aims to integrate the screening, assessment, treatment and referral linkage for MSUD among individuals seeking NCD care. This integrated approach offers a pathway to reduce the treatment gap for MSUD, improve patient outcomes, and inform adoption of evidence-based, sustainable health strategies at a larger scale in the state of Haryana.
Keywords: Comorbidity, health services integration, Mental Disorders, noncommunicable diseases, Primary Health Care, Substance-Related Disorders
Received: 26 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 BALHARA, Sarkar, Verma, Singh, Atri, Saini, Kang, GROVER, Verma and Dahiya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: YATAN PAL SINGH BALHARA
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