{"id":249154,"date":"2023-06-22T20:37:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T15:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=249154"},"modified":"2023-08-31T16:35:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T11:05:51","slug":"spare-a-thought-for-psychiatric-caregivers-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/spare-a-thought-for-psychiatric-caregivers-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Spare a thought for psychiatric caregivers too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cSpare a thought for psychiatric caregivers too\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 22nd June 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus:<\/strong> GS2- Issues related to development and management of health<\/p>\n

Relevance-<\/strong> Mental health related issues<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>The article explains the issues faced by caregivers providing support to mental ill people<\/p>\n

What is the prevalence of mental disorders faced by the Indian population? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to National Health Mission estimates<\/strong>, 6%-7% of India\u2019s population<\/strong> suffers from mental disorders. One in four families<\/strong> is likely to have at least one member with a behavioural or mental health disorder. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The situation worsened during the COVID-19 pandemi<\/strong>c as long periods of isolation, financial difficulty, and uncertainty about the future increased stress levels <\/strong>across social segments.<\/p>\n

Most of these cases remain untreated due to ignorance and social stigma<\/strong>. Without proper diagnosis<\/strong>, the patient and their families keep suffering.<\/p>\n

What are issues faced by caregivers?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Over 90% of psychiatric patients in India live with their families. The caregiver is under considerable stress because of the physical and emotional caregiving<\/strong> along with the social isolation, financial difficulties and troublesome behaviour of the patient. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In nuclear families, the role falls on the spouse. Chronic mental illnes<\/strong>s in a nuclear household disrupts daily life and drains family resources.<\/p>\n

Women caregivers<\/strong> face challenges in balancing caregiving, career, child rearing, and household responsibility<\/strong>. They are less likely to receive informal support<\/strong> for psychiatric treatment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prolonged caregiving negatively impacts the psychological well-being<\/strong> of caregivers. Caregivers use various strategies to cope which include sharing, spirituality, hobbies. But unhealthy coping mechanisms <\/strong>can negatively impact both caregivers and patients.<\/p>\n

The National Mental Health Programme and the decentralised District Mental Health Programme<\/strong> remain focused on the patient but neglect the caregiver.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward for the well-being of caregivers?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is essential to introduce a structured intervention programme <\/strong>to educate and support<\/strong> the caregivers of psychiatric patients. It should educate them about the illness and their roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Successful intervention models include cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoeducational skill building, family counselling, and peer-support<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A comprehensive treatment <\/strong>of severe psychiatric illnesses in the future would need building effective partnerships<\/strong> between health-care professionals, informal caregivers, and psychosocial interventions.<\/p>\n

What are concerns related to the preparedness of health-care systems to provide caregiver support?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A lack of trained specialists hinders cost-effective intervention model implementation<\/strong>. India has one psychiatrist and psychologist for every four lakh and 16 lakh citizens. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Insufficient budget allocation<\/strong> for mental health patients also raises concerns of developing intervention for psychiatric caregivers.<\/p>\n

private mental health institutions services are expensive and beyond reach<\/strong> for many.<\/p>\n

Mental illnesses are excluded from the list of ailments covered by leading medical insurers in India.<\/p>\n

Government schemes such as the flagship Ayushman Bharat <\/strong>provide coverage for mental disorders. However, coverage by private insurers remains limited.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several non-governmental organisations<\/strong> and community movements such as Mind root have been engaged in community support work<\/strong> for people with mental illness and their caregivers. However, given the severity of the issue<\/strong>, their scale remains insignificant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cSpare a thought for psychiatric caregivers too\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 22nd June 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Issues related to development and management of health Relevance- Mental health related issues News- The article explains the issues faced by caregivers providing support to mental ill people What is… Continue reading Spare a thought for psychiatric caregivers too<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"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":[212,8131,10498],"class_list":["post-249154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-social-issues","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249154","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\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}