Synopsis: As mental health issues are increasing in India, there is need to address social, institutional and governance issues to overcome this impending crisis.
Introduction
India celebrates 10th October as World Mental Health Day. Despite such campaigns, mental health remains under-invested and underappreciated in India.
What is the status of mental health issues in India?
The proportion of mental disorders to the total disease burden in India has doubled since 1990. Lancet 2020 study shows that over 197 million Indians suffered from mental disorders in 2017 ( 15% of India’s population).
UNICEF survey has found that only 41% of people between 15 and 24 years of age in India sought help for mental health issues (compared with 83% in the world).
| Read more: Seeking a paradigm shift in mental health care |
What is the impact of the Mental Health issue?
World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that unaddressed mental health issues could cost India $1 trillion between 2012 and 2030.
What steps have been taken by the Indian government?
The Mental Healthcare Act was passed in 1982. It was further improved with Mental Health Act, 2017. Act mandated each state to set up its own mental health authority by 2019.
| Read here: How can India address its mental healthcare problem? |
What are the issues in the Indian system?
According to the WHO’s Mental Health Atlas for India, there were only 0.07 psychologists and 0.29 psychiatrists per 1 lakh people in 2017.
Psychologist needs a license which requires a 2 year MPhil degree from select institutions picked by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). Though national education policy abolished the need for this degree, RCI still insists on it.
What are the governance issues?
India specifies mental illness on WHO’s criteria. But neither RCI nor the health ministry has any clarity or consistency on this in their textbooks. Also, RCI is part of the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment while mental health is under the health ministry.
Quota system: RCI, run by bureaucrats, rations out seats for MPhil programmes. This limits the number of trained psychologists that can be produced every year.
What is the way forward?
There is a need to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach, where inputs from all the perspectives are taken to evolve a comprehensive policy.
Source: This post is based on the article “The country needs to get a handle on mental health” published in the Livemint on 8th November 2021.
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