Encouraging Community Wellness for Behavioral Health (Addiction,NCDs and Mental Health)

  From Confrontation to Compassion: Indianizing Prevention and Restoring Human Dignity in Drug Response By *Suneel Vatsyayan The journey from confrontation to compassion in India’s drug response is not merely a professional reflection—it’s a personal one. It began for me in 1985, when I met a 16-year-old boy struggling with petrol sniffing. Brought by his mother to the Observation Home for Boys near Delhi Gate, this moment left an indelible impact. It was before I officially joined Navjyoti, but it became the seed of my lifelong commitment to humanizing addiction treatment. When I joined Navjyoti , established under the Delhi Police Foundation for Correction, De-addiction, and Rehabilitation in 1987, I came as a trained social worker—not just to treat symptoms, but to restore dignity. Back then, and still today, I hold this belief: No human being should be reduced to their addiction . The challenge of substance use is not merely medical—it is deeply social, cultural, and spiritual....

Prof. T.K.Thomas  The annual World No Tobacco Day was observed on 31st May. The day is observed by the World Health Organization [WHO] and global partners as an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. This year’s focus for the day was, “Tobacco and lung health” . Everyone knows how tobacco affects our lungs. The WHO release says, the campaign will increase awareness on, “the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer, to chronic respiratory diseases”. There are frightening figures about the mortality attached to tobacco related diseases. A study by three Indian researchers in 2012 revealed that “tobacco is a leading preventable cause of death, killing nearly six million people worldwide each year. Reversing this entirely preventable man made epidemic should be our top priority. The global tobacco epidemic kills more people than tu...

Nada India Foundation  is pleased to announce the   Training workshop on use of ear acupuncture as per NADA Protocol for addiction treatment and general w ell being as  Acudetox Specialist,Associates and Assistants  to be held in Delhi   on 31st Jan (10 AM-5 PM) &1st Feb (Half day from 2pm-6 pm ) .2014. The workshop will be conducted by Dr. Michael O. Smith, Psychiatrist & Acupuncturist from  New York  and facilitated by  Dr.Arindam Sinha  MBBS,NADA,ADS  and Suneel Vatsyayan , MSW,NADA,ADS. The workshop aims to facilitate a shared understanding of importance of barrier free services and skill in use ear acupuncture as an adjunct treatment at all stages of addiction treatment (pre-admission, detoxification and rehabilitation and after care).  This workshop also provides trainees with skills to use ear acupuncture (NADA Protocol three points) under general supervision of Dr. Michael O. Smith acupuncturist an...

Dr.Arindam Sinha*      History of Acupuncture is a beautiful story of mankind, anthropology, dynasties, roles of Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose , banning of acupuncture in mainland China and its propagation in entire world by the efforts of few lion hearted physicians. Though believed to be originated in China, origin of acupuncture and its concept is spread in a very big area, like no one can claim about origin of agriculture same with acupuncture, Otzi the mummy found in Italy is 8000 years old and has specific acupuncture points tattooed on his body for specific diseases he had. India and Sri Lanka have their claims. But it flowered and reached its zeniths under Chinese dynasties, the first written proof, can be called minutes of the meeting between Yellow Emperor and his court physician   Qi Bo, is featured in the medical text, the  Huang Di Nei Jing , The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. During Ming Dynasty ac...