Partners

PHFI adopts a broad, integrative approach to public health, tailoring its endeavours to Indian conditions and bearing relevance to countries facing similar challenges and concerns. The PHFI focuses on broad dimensions of public health that encompass promotive, preventive and therapeutic services. The dispersed location of the Indian Institutes for Public Health as well as wide-ranging partnerships across the country, enable PHFI to address these challenges in a contextually appropriate manner, within a binding ethos of sound public health values.

Its diverse projects span the epidemiology and management of infectious and chronic diseases, mental health, injuries, maternal and child health, health systems strengthening, social determinants of health, and more. 

Project with MHI 

This project attempts to address gaps in the current suicide data by providing a more detailed and nuanced understanding that goes beyond the aggregate figures reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). While NCRB data serves as a key resource, its aggregate nature, underreporting particularly among women and lack of individual case-level information limits its utility in shaping suicide prevention strategies.

PHFI previously conducted a nationally representative all-cause mortality survey involving one million people of all age groups, examining the cause of death for deaths that occurred from 2019 to 2022 across 50 districts in nine states: Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. This study has yielded recent causes of death estimation for India, including significant data on suicide deaths, offering insights and patterns regarding suicide trends at a population level.

The MHI-funded six-month research project on Suicide Prevention and Support Services (SPSS) at PHFI includes the analysis of existing suicide death data from the nationally representative survey, a new study concentrating on the underlying reasons for such deaths, and the postvention needs of bereaved families in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, the three states with a significant number of suicide deaths in the nationally-representative survey. This research aims to inform the development of effective suicide prevention and postvention strategies and tailored support systems for survivors, through in-depth interviews with bereaved families. Key objectives include identifying the support needs of families coping with suicide loss, family perceptions of mental health and suicide risk, and potential stigma surrounding suicide.

This project is undertaken by the PHFI Injury Prevention Research Centre.