For a long time, mental health was treated as something that belonged primarily inside hospitals and psychiatric clinics. If someone was struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma or another psychological condition, the usual response was to send them to a specialist.
But the world is slowly discovering that this model has a major limitation: specialists are limited, while the need for mental-health support is enormous.
The challenge becomes even greater in rural and underserved communities, where trained professionals may be far away and social stigma can discourage people from seeking help.
Countries are therefore experimenting with different ways of bringing mental-health support closer to ordinary people. Some are using technology. Some are working through schools and communities. Others are training non-specialist healthcare workers to identify problems earlier.
And now, India is attempting to bring several of these approaches together through a new BRICS mental-health cooperation network, with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) serving as the coordinating centre.
Mental health is becoming a global public-health issue
The way countries approach mental health differs considerably because culture, healthcare systems, resources and social attitudes differ.
Yet many countries face similar problems.
People may not recognise early symptoms. Families may misunderstand psychological conditions. Specialist services may be concentrated in major cities. Healthcare workers may not have sufficient mental-health training. And even when digital services exist, questions of privacy, accessibility and trust remain.
This has encouraged governments and health institutions to look beyond the traditional model of simply increasing the number of psychiatrists.
The emerging idea is broader:
Mental healthcare should become part of everyday healthcare.
That means identifying problems earlier, providing basic support closer to communities and ensuring that people can be referred to specialists when necessary.
Different countries, different experiments
One fascinating aspect of the emerging BRICS cooperation is that countries are bringing different experiences to the table.
China: Fighting stigma through storytelling
In China, one approach highlighted through the BRICS initiative uses educational manga and storytelling to address mental-health stigma among young people.
The idea is surprisingly simple.
Instead of presenting mental illness as something mysterious or shameful, stories can explain psychological conditions in familiar language and show that seeking help is not a moral failure.
This matters particularly among young people, where fear of social judgement can become a barrier to seeking support.
The objective is therefore not only treatment.
It is also changing how society understands mental health.
Indonesia: Taking support into the digital space
Indonesia has developed experience with digital crisis-support platforms, another approach being considered within the broader BRICS cooperation.
Digital systems can potentially help people access information and initial support without immediately having to travel to a hospital.
For countries with large populations spread across islands, rural areas and urban centres, digital connectivity can become an important part of expanding access.
But digital mental healthcare also creates a responsibility: technology should complement professional care rather than become a substitute for it when someone requires specialised intervention.
South Africa: Community-level screening
South Africa brings experience with community-based mental-health screening approaches.
This reflects an important principle.
Mental-health problems do not always begin inside hospitals. They exist within families, schools, workplaces and communities.
If trained frontline workers can recognise warning signs early, people can potentially be connected with appropriate services before their problems become more severe.
This is particularly relevant to countries where specialist healthcare is unevenly distributed.
The UAE: Exploring virtual reality
The United Arab Emirates is contributing experience involving virtual-reality-based interventions.
Virtual reality is increasingly being explored in healthcare because it can create controlled environments for therapeutic and behavioural applications.
Its potential is particularly interesting because it demonstrates how mental-healthcare systems are beginning to experiment with technologies that were previously associated primarily with entertainment and gaming.
However, technological novelty by itself does not establish clinical effectiveness. Such tools still require appropriate evidence, professional oversight and ethical safeguards.
Russia: Technology-assisted assessment
Russia’s experience includes technology-assisted approaches to mental-health assessment.
This represents another direction in which technology could support healthcare professionals.
Digital tools can potentially assist with screening, assessment and monitoring, but the human element remains essential. Mental-health conditions are complex and cannot always be reduced to a digital questionnaire or algorithm.
That is why responsible deployment of technology is becoming just as important as technological innovation itself.
India’s approach: Connecting technology with the healthcare system
India brings a particularly relevant experience to this conversation.
The country has already been expanding tele-mental-health services, including the Tele-MANAS programme, which connects people with mental-health support through digital channels. Government information says the service has been operating across multiple Indian languages, with additional features including an app, video consultation and an AI-powered chatbot.
This experience becomes valuable when thinking about India’s BRICS role.
India is not simply trying to build a completely new system from scratch.
Instead, it can potentially take lessons from its existing digital-health infrastructure and combine them with successful approaches developed elsewhere.
That is the basic logic behind the new BRICS Network of Centres of Excellence on Mental Wellness.
What exactly is India piloting?
Under India’s 2026 BRICS chairship, Promotion of Mental Wellness was introduced as one of the priority areas of the BRICS Health Track. The 16th BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting subsequently supported the creation of a BRICS Network of Centres of Excellence on Mental Wellness, with NIMHANS as the coordinating centre.
The network is intended to facilitate:
• collaborative research
• exchange of successful practices
• professional training
• capacity building
• digital mental-health solutions
• policy dialogue
• integration of mental healthcare into primary healthcare
The initiative also envisages training and supporting non-specialist health workers, allowing basic mental-health services to reach communities that may not have immediate access to specialists.
This is one of the most significant ideas behind the initiative.
Why primary healthcare matters
Imagine a person living in a rural area who begins experiencing persistent anxiety, depression or another mental-health difficulty.
The nearest psychiatrist might be hundreds of kilometres away.
Expecting every person to travel to a major city for the first point of contact is unrealistic.
But if a primary-healthcare worker can recognise warning signs, provide basic support and connect the person with a specialist through telehealth when required, the healthcare system becomes much more accessible.
This is known as task-sharing.
Instead of expecting specialists to perform every function, appropriately trained healthcare workers can undertake defined mental-health responsibilities while complicated cases are referred to specialists.
The BRICS initiative specifically identifies task-sharing, workforce training and digital platforms as important areas of cooperation.
And then comes Artificial Intelligence
AI could potentially become another layer of this system.
The proposed areas of cooperation include AI-assisted screening, digital interventions, suicide-prevention research and other technology-enabled approaches.
The attraction is obvious.
AI systems can operate continuously, process large amounts of information and potentially help identify patterns that deserve further attention.
But mental healthcare is also an area where careless automation could cause serious problems.
A person’s psychological condition cannot be understood completely from a few numerical indicators.
There are also questions surrounding:
Who owns the data?
How is sensitive information protected?
Can an AI system make harmful mistakes?
Who is responsible when an automated recommendation is wrong?
How can cultural differences be incorporated into digital mental-health tools?
The BRICS framework therefore also recognises issues such as data privacy, cybersecurity, ethical AI deployment and human-rights-based mental-health policies.
Technology may expand access, but trust will determine whether people actually use it.
India is not working alone
The larger significance of the initiative lies in its collaborative structure.
The idea is not for one country to design a universal mental-health system and impose it on everyone else.
Instead, different countries can contribute what they have learned.
China can contribute approaches to reducing stigma.
Indonesia can contribute digital crisis-support experience.
South Africa can contribute community-level approaches.
The UAE can contribute technology-assisted interventions.
Russia can contribute technology-based assessment experience.
India can contribute its experience with tele-mental-health services and its large-scale public-health infrastructure.
The resulting network can then study which approaches can actually be adapted to different populations and healthcare systems.
The BRICS New Delhi Declaration also envisages the network as a platform for research, policy dialogue, exchange of best practices and development of evidence-based mental-health strategies.
The bigger lesson
There is something important happening here beyond the creation of another international health programme.
The definition of healthcare itself is changing.
Healthcare used to be largely associated with treating illness after someone became seriously unwell.
The emerging approach places greater emphasis on:
prevention → early identification → community support → digital access → specialist referral → long-term care
Mental health fits naturally into this continuum.
A teenager may first need someone to recognise their distress.
A rural worker may need access to a counsellor through a digital platform.
A primary-healthcare worker may need training to identify warning signs.
A specialist may need better information to provide treatment.
A policymaker may need reliable data to understand where services are missing.
These are not separate problems.
They are different parts of the same healthcare ecosystem.
The road ahead
India’s BRICS initiative is still an evolving framework rather than a finished global mental-health system.
Its eventual impact will depend on implementation, evidence, funding, workforce capacity, technology infrastructure and the ability of participating countries to adapt solutions to their own societies.
But the direction is significant.
The future of mental healthcare may not be a choice between human doctors and technology.
It may instead be about building systems where technology expands reach, community workers provide the first layer of support, specialists handle complex cases, and international cooperation allows countries to learn from one another.
Mental health is deeply personal, but the systems supporting it do not have to work in isolation.
The next revolution in mental healthcare may therefore be less about building bigger hospitals and more about bringing the right support closer to where people actually live.
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