| Mental health is neglected area & awareness low |
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Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said that mental health is a neglected area where awareness is low even among the health professionals. “In recent years, we have given a lot of attention to the issue of mental health in India and have increased the allocation of resources for the programme more than 6 times for our current five year plan,’’ he said. He was speaking after inaugurating the three-day international conference-cum-workshop of the Asia Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project, here on Thursday. The Minister noted that unfortunately there is still stigma attached towards persons with mental illness and epilepsy within the society. Public education and efforts to change the attitude of general population towards persons with mental illness and epilepsy need to be carried out, Azad said. “One hopes that with progress, development and modernization, we do not lose our traditional social customs, values and life styles as these have proved to be positive,” he said, adding that social and culturally acceptable and affordable rehabilitation measures need to be developed and implemented. Considering the available evidence that 6 to 7 per cent of population in India suffers from common mental disorders and 1-2 per cent of population suffers from severe mental disorders and the fact that globally it is estimated that the burden of mental disorders will increase to 15 per cent by 2020, he said. The Minister informed that the National Mental Health Programme was launched in 1996 on a pilot basis in 4 districts. Today the programme covers 123 districts under the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP). It has been expanded to include the up gradation of psychiatry departments of Government Medical Colleges, general hospitals and modernisation of State run Mental Hospitals. 89 psychiatry departments have been upgraded and 29 mental hospitals modernized. “We are developing 11 Institutions across the country as centres of excellence in Mental Health. These 11 institutions will add 44 psychiatrists, 176 clinical psychologists, 176 psychiatric social workers and 220 psychiatric nurses annually. We propose to support states to start Post Graduate courses in Mental Health and other Institutions, including provision of basic infrastructure and faculty. These institutions will add 60 psychiatrists, 240 clinical psychologists, 240 psychiatric social workers and 600 psychiatric nurses annually. Together, these two schemes would help us to produce 1756 qualified mental health professional annually and enable us to bridge the gap between our requirement and the availability of mental health professions,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Health Secretary K Chandramouli said that Government is making efforts to expand the District Mental Health Programme from the current 123 districts to cover all 650 districts. According to WHO data, the Asia Pacific region has close to half of the approximately 450 million people affected by mental illness globally. Mental disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, substance abuse and dementia contribute more to global disease burden than cancer or cardiovascular disease. WHO has projected that by the year 2030 mental disorders will be one of the leading causes of the global disease burden. The three day conference with theme – “Building Partnership in Community mental Health” is aimed at developing a set of common principles of partnerships in community mental health, while also highlighting best practice examples of these partnerships across the network countries. The objectives are to promote and advocate the development of community mental health in India and the Asia Pacific region, to share knowledge and insight about best practice partnerships in community mental health in each of the network countries, and to develop a consensus statement about the principles for the development of community mental health partnerships, an official release said. Courtsey: News at PharmaBiz.com |