THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The Covid-19 restrictions have taken a toll on the mentally ill persons in the state as the reduced access to psychiatric help aggravated the situation even after the hospitals restarted the services to pre-Covid level. “The Mental Health Centre in Thiruvananthapuram are now getting patients who have not taken medicines for months due to various reasons. Some of them need hospital admission as their condition has worsened,” said a source.
They include patients taking medicines for substance abuse and those suffering from severe psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia etc. The hospital gets over 200 out patients in a day.According to the source, the lack of treatment becomes a social problem as the patients become violent and attack others.
The pandemic situation has exacerbated the mental issues of common people in general and mental patients in particular. The helpline started by the government for psychosocial support received over 62 lakh calls, of which close to 3.5 lakh calls were from people under treatment for mental illnesses, migrant labourers, differently-abled children, elderly persons staying alone.
The general deterioration in the financial stability of several families might have affected the spending on treatment, said Dr F R Murali, a psychiatrist in Malappuram.The functioning of District Mental Health Programmes (DMHP) too were affected during the initial months of the lockdown period. “As it was difficult to organise camps, we informed the patients to approach the nearby public health centres to collect medicines,” said Dr Kiran K S, state coordinator of DMHP.
According to him, PHCs distributed medicines to all mental patients who were not even registered with DMHP. “The number of registrations in DMHP had increased since lockdown as the patients found it convenient. Also, the conversion of some of hospitals into Covid hospitals could be the reason,” he said.
MENTAL HEALTH CALLS FOR HELP
The helpline started by the government for psychosocial support received over 62 lakh calls, of which close to 3.5 lakh calls were from people under treatment for mental illnesses, migrant labourers, differently-abled children, elderly persons staying alone