World Mental Health Day, October 10, is when we look back at our successes and failures in the field of mental health. It is also when we resolve to complete our unfinished tasks and address pressing mental health problems of tomorrow.And while doing so, the WHO statement, “There is no health without mental health”, should serve as the guiding principle.
Unfortunately, mental health has faced utter neglect in most countries including India, despite the fact that around 14 percent of the Global Burden of Disease is caused by mental illness, alcohol, substance abuse and suicides. It is also well known that one-third of all disabilities is caused by mental illness. Still, investment in mental health remains low - less than 3 percent of our health budget.
WHO estimates peg mental health gap in most developing countries, including India, at 90 percent. This means, 90 percent of our citizens have no access to mental healthcare! Isn’t this shocking?
Psychological First-Aid: Put simply, it means what we should or should not tell a person, who has experienced some kind of trauma. And like medical first-aid, this, too, needs training to be perfected.
Psychological First-Aid was chosen as theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day to prepare everyone in the community, including health professionals, teachers, policemen, fire and rescue personnel, humanitarian aid workers and social workers, to support and help emotionally-distressed people, who survived physical or psychological trauma. The trauma may be from natural or man-made disasters, death of loved ones in road or other accidents, suicides or domestic/sexual violence. Those surviving the mishaps will be traumatised and need our help and support. In this scenario, what we should say and what we shouldn’t become equally important.
And just like first-aid, psychological first-aid should be seen as just a first step and should be followed up for continued care and support at the hands of experts in psychiatry.
UN Sustainable Development Goals: In September 2015, UN adopted a Development Agenda for 2030, in which, for the first time, it accepted mental health as a development priority. Its goal 3.4 says, “By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.” Thus, mental health has become a responsibility of governments across the world. Mental Healthcare Bill: Our Rajya Sabha recently adopted this bill, which will soon come up for discussion before the Lok Sabha. It contains clauses like ‘nominated representative’ and ‘advance directives’, copied from the West, which are completely alien to our culture. The present bill excludes families in the treatment and care of the mentally ill. The Bill should be re-written in consultation with Indian Psychiatric Society, to guarantee justice for people with mental illness and their families. India is a signatory to WHO’s Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 and now is the time for affirmative action!
(The author is the Secretary General of the World Psychiatric Association)