Despite being home of one of the finest mental health treatment centres, the overall mental health system appears almost non-existing in the State with only four out of 24 districts running District Mental Health System. The National Mental Health Survey (NHMS), 2016, Jharkhand has reached a conclusion among many others that this is only due to poor focus of the State towards mental health that treatment gap in Jharkhand is around 75 per cent, the highest in the country, for Common Mental Disorders (CMD) and substance use illness.
The outcomes of the survey commissioned by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, coordinated by National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) Bangalore and implemented by Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) Ranchi in coordination with Ministry of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare of the State clearly indicates that the government has to come up with concrete plan to combat mental illness issue which is going to emerge as one of the foremost reasons of death after 2030.
Revealing the findings of first such survey on mental health conducted in India by Indian stakeholders, CIP Director and Professor of Psychiatry D Ram said that some of the facts related to the State presented dreadful picture. “The survey result says that the prevalence of any mental disorder including CMD and severe mental disorders was 11.1 per cent in Jharkhand which is a little above the national average of 10.6 per cent. Disability due to mental illness is also higher than national average. These are not at all good for the State,” said Ram on Friday.
Co-Investigator of the survey in Jharkhand Dr Nishant Goyal said that out of 43 districts across the country, four were selected for the study in Jharkhand. “We interviewed as many as 3,590 people of Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Ranchi and Godda including 267 adolescents in which 3,022 interviews were found worth documented on different parameters of research methodology. As a whole, NMHS interviewed nearly 40,000 individuals and 1,200 young adolescents from 12 states across six regions. The results indicate that near 15 Crores of Indians aged 13 and above are likely to be suffering from one or more mental health problems and are in need of services,” said Goyal on Friday, which was also the World Health Day.
“The theme of World Health Day for this year was Depression: let’s Talk, and rightly so because it is going to become an epidemic after 2030 if the issues related to it are not timely resolved,” said Co-Principal Investigator of the survey Vinod Kumar Sinha. He added that the fast pace of globalisation and urbanisation had resulted in profound changes in the lifestyle globally. “This has affected mental health of individuals, families and societies in a significant way and increased vulnerability of them towards mental health,” Sinha said.