Project Burans is a non-profit partnership project working with communities to improve mental health care in Uttarakhand, northern India. Lead by the Emmanuel Hospital Association, with the Uttarakhand Community Global Health network, our principal focus is on offering support, relief and understanding around mental health in rural and impoverished communities who have least access to available services.
Our work is entirely community-based, and we are committed to building on existing resources so that community members can shape an understanding of psycho-social wellbeing which is appropriate for them, and have the capacity to be self-sufficient in their own mental health care.
Our teams are responsive to the varying priorities and conditions of their communities. They regularly consult senior community members and leaders, hold workshops and discussions, counsel individuals with mental health problems, and facilitate the formation of self-help or support groups. Our standards, objectives and resources are the backbone of every team, but they often develop their own initiatives and evaluations enabling them to offer provision which is as suitable and flexible as possible to the communities they work with.