India get its first ever mental health policy
The new National Mental Health Policy is a landmark effort by the Union Government towards improving the overall healthcare infrastructure. launched last week by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan, the policy is the first of its kind and puts the spotlight on this oft-ignored field. Though it is universally acknowledged that good health is as much about physical well-being as it is about mental fitness, the two elements are rarely treated on an equal footing. While those who suffer from physical illnesses usually enjoy special care and sympathy, the mentally ill are often misunderstood and subject to suspicion. Similarly, while individuals seek medical attention for physiological ailments, they are often reluctant to even acknowledge psychological disorders — they fear being labeled ‘mad' or ‘crazy' or ‘insane'. Indeed, in India, as in many other parts of the world, mental health issues are often caught in a nasty web of social stigma and superstition, which in turn brings about untold misery and suffering upon the sick. To make matters worse, there has only been a limited effort on the part of the state to change the manner in which mental health issues are addressed by society, as the laws governing this field, stand proof. For instance, suicide is still a crime which means that depressed patients who attempt suicide and fail, can be put behind bars, instead of being admitted to a hospital. Thankfully, the new policy investigates some of these crucial issues.
Apart creating social awareness, the policy also lays the roadmap for how the state can take concrete measures its revamp mental healthcare infrastructure. These include sanctioning of additional funds for modernisation of psychological and psychiatric departments in all hospitals as well as the re-modeling of mental health institutes across the country on the lines of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences in Bangalore. Such a large-scale, wide-ranging push is indeed the need of the hour, as the existing infrastructure is woefully inadequate. To understand the scope of the problem, one only has to look at the figures: Mental health expenses account for a puny 0.06 per cent of India's overall healthcare budget, which in itself is less than two per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Comparatively, even Bangladesh spends more on mental health at 0.44 per cent of its total healthcare budget while fellow BRICS nation Brazil spends 2.38 per cent and the US 6.2 per cent. And that is not all. India also has an acute shortage of healthcare providers who are trained to deal with mental health issues. For example, this country of more than a billion people has only 3,500 psychiatrists — or just, one psychiatrist for every 3,43,000 people — according to the World Health Organisation. The bias against mental health is also seen in medical education. Aspiring doctors only do a short training rotation in this field and few are interested in specialising this area.