of mental disorders in india are from vedic era (2000 bc – ad 600). charaka samhita, an ayurvedic textbook believed to be from 400 to 200 bc describes various factors of mental stability. it also has instructions regarding how to set up a care delivery system. in the same era, siddha was a medical system in south india. the great sage agastya was one of the 18 siddhas contributing to a system of medicine. this system has included the agastiyar kirigai nool, a compendium of psychiatric disorders and their recommended treatments. in atharva veda too there are descriptions and resolutions about mental health afflictions. in the mughal period unani system of medicine was introduced by an indian physician unhammad in 1222. the existing form of psychotherapy was known then as ilaj-i-nafsani in unani medicine. the 18th century was a very unstable period in indian history, which contributed to psychological and social chaos in the indian subcontinent. in 1745, lunatic asylums were developed in bombay (mumbai) followed by calcutta (kolkata) in 1784, and madras (chennai) in 1794. the need to establish hospitals became more acute, first to treat and manage englishmen and indian 'sepoys' (military men) employed by the british east india company. the first lunacy act (also called act no. 36) that came into effect in 1858 was later modified by a committee appointed in bengal in 1888. later, the indian lunacy act, 1912 was brought under this legislation. a rehabilitation programme was initiated between 1870s and 1890s for persons with mental illness at the mysore lunatic asylum, and then an occupational therapy department was established during this period in almost each of the lunatic asylums. the programme in the asylum was called 'work therapy'. in this programme, persons with mental illness were involved in the field of agriculture for all activities. this programme is considered as the seed of origin of psychosocial rehabilitation in india. berkeley-hill, superintendent of the european hospital (now known as the central institute of psychiatry (cip), established in 1918), was deeply concerned about the improvement of mental hospitals in those days. the sustained efforts of berkeley-hill helped to raise the standard of treatment and care and he also persuaded the government to change the term 'asylum' to 'hospital' in 1920. techniques similar to the current token-economy were first started in 1920 and called by the name 'habit formation chart' at the cip, ranchi. in 1937, the first post of psychiatric social worker was created in the child guidance clinic run by the dhorabji tata school of social work (established in 1936). it is considered as the first documented evidence of social work practice in indian mental health field. after independence in 1947, general hospital psychiatry units (ghpus) were established to improve conditions in existing hospitals, while at the same time encouraging outpatient care through these units. in amritsar dr. vidyasagar instituted active involvement of families in the care of persons with mental illness. this was advanced practice ahead of its times regarding treatment and care. this methodology had a greater impact on social work practice in the mental health field especially in reducing the stigmatisation. in 1948 gauri rani banerjee, trained in the united states, started a master's course in medical and psychiatric social work at the dhorabji tata school of social work (now tiss). later the first trained psychiatric social worker was appointed in 1949 at the adult psychiatry unit of yerwada mental hospital, pune. in various parts of the country, in mental health service settings, social workers were employed—in 1956 at a mental hospital in amritsar, in 1958 at a child guidance clinic of the college of nursing, and in delhi in 1960 at the all india institute of medical sciences and in 1962 at the ram manohar lohia hospital. in 1960, the madras mental hospital (now institute of mental health) employed social workers to bridge the gap between doctors and patients. in 1961 the social work post was created at the nimhans. in these settings they took care of the psychosocial aspect of treatment. this system enabled social service practices to have a stronger long-term impact on mental health care. in 1966 by the recommendation mental health advisory committee, ministry of health, government of india, nimhans commenced department of psychiatric social work started and a two-year postgraduate diploma in psychiatric social work was introduced in 1968. in 1978, the nomenclature of the course was changed to mphil in psychiatric social work. subsequently, a phd programme was introduced. by the recommendations mudaliar committee in 1962, diploma in psychiatric social work was started in 1970 at the european mental hospital at ranchi (now cip). the program was upgraded and other higher training courses were added subsequently. a new initiative to integrate mental health with general health services started in 1975 in india. the ministry of health, government of india formulated the national mental health programme (nmhp) and launched it in 1982. the same was reviewed in 1995 and based on that, the district mental health program (dmhp) was launched in 1996 which sought to integrate mental health care with public health care. this model has been implemented in all the states and currently there are 125 dmhp sites in india. national human rights commission (nhrc) in 1998 and 2008 carried out systematic, intensive and critical examinations of mental hospitals in india. this resulted in recognition of the human rights of the persons with mental illness by the nhrc. from the nhrc's report as part of the nmhp, funds were provided for upgrading the facilities of mental hospitals. as a result of the study, it was revealed that there were more positive changes in the decade until the joint report of nhrc and nimhans in 2008 compared to the last 50 years until 1998. in 2016 mental health care bill was passed which ensures and legally entitles access to treatments with coverage from insurance, safeguarding dignity of the afflicted person, improving legal and healthcare access and allows for free medications. in december 2016, disabilities act 1995 was repealed with rights of persons with disabilities act (rpwd), 2016 from the 2014 bill which ensures benefits for a wider population with disabilities. the bill before becoming an act was pushed for amendments by stakeholders mainly against alarming clauses in the "equality and non discrimination" section that diminishes the power of the act and allows establishments to overlook or discriminate against persons with disabilities and against the general lack of directives that requires to ensure the proper implementation of the act. mental health in india is in its developing stages. there are not enough professionals to support the demand. according to the indian psychiatric society, there are around 9000 psychiatrists only in the country as of january 2019. going by this figure, india has 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 population, while the desirable number is at least 3 psychiatrists per 100,000. while the number of psychiatrists has increased since 2010, it is still far from a healthy ratio. lack of any universally accepted single licensing authority compared to foreign countries puts social workers at general in risk. but general bodies/councils accepts automatically a university-qualified social worker as a professional licensed to practice or as a qualified clinician. lack of a centralized council in tie-up with schools of social work also makes a decline in promotion for the scope of social workers as mental health professionals. though in this midst the service of social workers has given a facelift to the mental health sector in the country with other allied professionals. theoretical models and practices social work is an interdisciplinary profession, meaning it draws from a number of areas, such as (but not limited to) psychology, sociology, politics, criminology, economics, ecology, education, health, law, philosophy, anthropology, and counseling, including psychotherapy. field work is a distinctive attribution to social work pedagogy. this equips the trainee in understanding the theories and models within the field of work. professional practitioners from multicultural aspects have their roots in this social work immersion engagements from the early 19th century in the western countries. as an example, here are some of the models and theories used within social work practice: empathy social case work social group work community organization behavioral school social worker leadership and management crisis intervention mental health cognitive-behavioral critical radical social insurance ecological equity theory financial social work motivational interviewing medical social work person-centered therapy psychoanalytic psychodynamic existential humanistic sociotherapy brief psychotherapy or solution-focused approach recovery approach reflexivity social exchange welfare economics anti-oppressive practice psychosocial rehabilitation cognitive behavioral therapy dialectical behavior therapy systems theory strength-based practice task-centered family therapy advocacy prevention science project management program evaluation and performance measurement systems thinking community development and intervention positive psychology social actions veterinary profession american educator abraham flexner in a 1915 lecture, "is social work a profession?", delivered at the national conference on charities and corrections, examined the characteristics of a profession concerning social work. it is not a 'single model', such as that of health, followed by medical professions such as nurses and doctors, but an integrated profession, and the likeness with medical profession is that social work requires a continued study for professional development to retain knowledge and skills that are evidence-based by practice standards. a social work professional's services lead toward the aim of providing beneficial services to individuals, dyads, families, groups, organizations, and communities to achieve optimum psychosocial functioning. its seven core functions are described by popple and leighninger as: engagement — the social worker must first engage the client in early meetings to promote a collaborative relationship assessment — data must be gathered that will guide and direct a plan of action to help the client planning — negotiate and formulate an action plan implementation — promote resource acquisition and enhance role performance monitoring/evaluation — on-going documentation through short-term goal attainment of the extent to which client is following through supportive counseling — affirming, challenging, encouraging, informing, and exploring options graduated disengagement — seeking to replace the social worker with a naturally occurring resource six other core values identified by the national association of social workers' (nasw) code of ethics are: service — help people in need and address social problems social justice — challenge social injustices dignity and worth of the person importance of human relationships integrity — behave in a trustworthy manner competence — practice within the areas of one's areas of expertise and develop and enhance professional skill a historic and defining feature of social work is the profession's focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients. a "client" can be an individual, family, group, organization, or community. in the broadening scope of the modern social worker's role, some practitioners have in recent years traveled to war-torn countries to provide psychosocial assistance to families and survivors. newer areas of social work practice involve management science. the growth of "social work administration" (sometimes also referred to as "social work management") for transforming social policies into services and directing activities of an organization toward achievement of goals is a related field. helping clients with accessing benefits such as unemployment insurance and disability benefits, to assist individuals and families in building savings and acquiring assets to improve their financial security over the long-term, to manage large operations, etc. requires social workers to know financial management skills to help clients and organization's to be financially self-sufficient. financial social work also helps clients with low-income or low to middle-income, people who are either unbanked (do not have a banking account) or underbanked (individuals who have a bank account but tend to rely on high cost non-bank providers for their financial transactions), with better mediation with financial institutions and induction of money management skills. another area that social workers are focusing is risk management, risk in social work is taken as knight in 1921 defined "if you don't even know for sure what will happen, but you know the odds, that is risk and if you don't even know the odds, that is uncertainty." risk management in social work means minimizing the risks while increasing potential benefits for clients by analyzing the risks and benefits in the duty of care or decisions. occupational social work is a field where the trained professionals assist