{"id":224073,"date":"2023-01-28T19:04:57","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T13:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=224073"},"modified":"2023-02-20T15:02:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T09:32:38","slug":"why-we-need-to-focus-on-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-we-need-to-focus-on-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we need to focus on mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article <\/span>\u201cWhy we need to focus on mental health\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in<\/span> The Indian Express<\/span><\/b> on <\/span>28th January 2023<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS2- Issues related to the development and management of health<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevance<\/span><\/b>: Issues related to mental health<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

News<\/span><\/b>: The article explains the prevalence of mental health and its impacts.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are some facts and statistics related to mental health?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Suicide rates<\/span><\/b> in India are <\/span>amongst the highest<\/span><\/b> when compared to other countries at the same socio-economic level. According to<\/span> WHO<\/span><\/b>, India\u2019s suicide rate in 2019 was at 12.9 per 1,00,000 population.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Suicide<\/span><\/b> has become the <\/span>leading cause of death<\/span><\/b> among those aged 15\u201329 in India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Across the world, the prevalence of some mental health disorders is consistently <\/span>higher among women <\/span><\/b>as compared to men.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic has further exacerbated the problem. According to a <\/span>study published in Lancet<\/span><\/b>, it might have increased the prevalence of depression by 28% and anxiety by 26% globally between 2020 and 2021. The large increases have been noted among younger age groups.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How social media is exacerbating stress and mental ill health for young people?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Social media detracts from <\/span>face-to-face relationships<\/span><\/b>, which are healthier.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It reduces <\/span>investment in meaningful activities<\/span><\/b>. It <\/span>erodes self-esteem <\/span><\/b>through unfavourable social comparison.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the impacts of poor mental health?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

It is a<\/span> leading cause of disability<\/span><\/b> globally. It is closely linked to poverty in a <\/span>vicious cycle of disadvantage<\/span><\/b>. People living in poverty are at greater risk of experiencing mental health conditions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, people experiencing severe mental health conditions are more likely to fall into poverty through <\/span>loss of employment and increased health expenditure<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stigma and discrimination<\/span><\/b> often further undermine their s<\/span>ocial support structures<\/span><\/b>. This reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty and mental ill-health.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are issues related to the treatment of mental health?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Currently, only 20-30% of people with mental illnesses receive <\/span>adequate treatment<\/span><\/b>. One major reason for such a <\/span>wide treatment gap<\/span><\/b> is the problem of <\/span>inadequate resources<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Less than 2% of the government health budget<\/span><\/b> is devoted to mental health issues.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a severe <\/span>shortage of mental health professionals<\/span><\/b>. According to one estimate, the number of psychiatrists in the country is less than those in New York City.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the way forward to overcome the challenges related to mental health?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

We need a <\/span>\u201cwhole-of-society\u201d approach<\/span><\/b> for the mental health of our people. This should be based on the following four pillars-<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Remove<\/strong> deep stigma around <\/span><\/b>mental health issues<\/strong>: It prevents patients from seeking timely treatment and makes them feel shameful, isolated and weak.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

M<\/b>ake mental health an i<\/strong><\/span>ntegral<\/strong> part of the public health programme<\/span><\/b>: This will reduce stress, promote a healthy lifestyle, screen and identify high-risk groups and strengthen mental health interventions like counselling services. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Special emphasis will need to be given to schools. In addition, we should pay special attention to groups that are <\/span>highly vulnerable to mental health issues<\/span><\/b> such as victims of domestic or sexual violence, unemployed youth.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Create a strong infrastructure for mental health care and treatment<\/strong>: <\/strong><\/span>Substantial investments<\/span><\/b> will be needed to address the gaps in the mental health infrastructure and human resources.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mental health services should be made affordable<\/strong>:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0All government health assurance schemes, including Ayushman Bharat, should cover the widest possible range of mental health conditions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, the <\/span>list of essential medicines<\/span><\/b> includes only a limited number of WHO-prescribed mental health medications.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>comprehensive review of these policies<\/span><\/b> will be needed to ensure that financial and other barriers do not prevent people from using services or push them into poverty.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cWhy we need to focus on mental health\u201d published in The Indian Express on 28th January 2023.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS2- Issues related to the development and management of health\u00a0 Relevance: Issues related to mental health\u00a0 News: The article explains the prevalence of mental health and its impacts. What… Continue reading Why we need to focus on mental health<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-224073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}