BENGALURU: Although mental illnesses effect millions of people the world over, mental health had little to no presence in the state budget presented on Monday.The only two instances of allocation for mental well-being was in the announcement that the Dharwad Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences would be developed at a cost of Rs 75 crore, and a centre of excellence proposed to be set up at the Reforms Institute Campus on Hosur Road in collaboration with NIMHANS and the National Law School of India University to assist women subjected to atrocities.
A psychiatrist from the Indian Medical Association in Karnataka, who did not wish to be named, said that 1 in 4 people have mental health issues, which calls for higher budgetary allocation to provide treatment and awareness.“For instance, mental illnesses are more common in women. The state could have focused more on them. Taluk hospitals have weekly programmes where psychiatrists from district hospitals come once a week to provide treatment. These specialists including psychologists, psychiatric nurses and psychiatric social workers can be incentivised to conduct more special camps,” he said.
Awareness camps help battle stigma as mental health professionals can explain why the illnesses occur, why medication is important, how to respect mentally ill patients and not ill-treat them, etc. “Patients with mental health needs who have been identified so far are only the tip of the iceberg and increased mass education is needed to identify cases that go unnoticed,” he said.
Dr Manika Ghosh, secretary of the Association of Health Psychologists (AHP), said that every year, the health allocation in the state budget is very small and is minimal for mental health. In 2020, the pandemic taught us how important mental health is, with children, adults and senior citizens’ mental health being affected, she said.
“There were many cases of anxiety and depression during the pandemic. The government should have given more emphasis to counselling, allocation for recruitment of counsellors. The focus should have been on mental health,” said Dr Ghosh.