Saturday, March 19, 2005

India should focus on Mental Health

This post is an impact of some columns where I read about the social stigma attached to Mental health and the lack of Mental Health facilities in India.

I've lost good friends and family in my personal life due to negligence of Mental health care as well as Amazing successes thanks to the same care.

India is changing and evolving as we speak. While Indians and the Indian politicians talk about the '2020 Vision for India' I feel it is very important that they address this issue of Mental health.

Here is a quote from an
article I read, which tells us the story:

In India, for example, there are 50 organizations working to support an estimated 10 million people with mental illness. And only two of these are community-based services, the rest are hospitals and halfway houses is also a shortage of treatment beds in the hospitals and too few mental health professionals. It is estimated that in India no more than 10 per cent of those who require urgent mental health care receive it and those in rural areas are far less able to access any support at all.

4 comments:

Nth Dimension said...

This is something thats hitting really close to home in my case. Fortunately, it does look like things are looking up as far as available assistance goes, for people needing such facilities. And the sooner the better....In addition to these facilities, I think we need better understanding of these issues as a whole.

Harish said...

This is what has been naggin me for a while. I was wondering if there are any organizations dealing with the psychological probelems in the aftermath of the tsunami. I am really concerned about that and looked around online and couldnt find anything on that.

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Daph, Understanding these issues is important like you mentioned. The people should be made aware that mental health is just like physical health. I think a lot of magazines are writing about it..but it would be a good idea to give publicity via TV etc.

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Harish, Yeah, I feel sad for the families. They definitely need mental counselling. I haven't read or heard about any organization that did that.

Thanks for stopping by.