BENGALURU: The National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), in association with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, will conduct the National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) - Phase 2 on urban mental health in six metros and two Tier-II cities in Karnataka from February 2022.
NIMHANS Director Prathima Murthy announced the survey while briefing the media on Friday. The survey will cover 3,600 sample population each in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Tier-II cities -- Hubballi-Dharwad and Mysuru in Karnataka.
The survey would look into the extent of mental health problems, access and systems that governmental health care. “The survey would also look at memory disturbances, behavioural addiction such as social media and gaming addiction, anxiety, children’s issues, their mental wellbeing and impact of Covid on people,” said Murthy.
According to the National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-16, the prevalence of any mental morbidity at any given point was 13.1 per cent in urban metros, 9.3 per cent in urban non-metros and 9.2 per cent in rural areas.“However, the Covid pandemic with its disastrous effect across cities of India has brought to the forefront the mental health concerns/issues of city dwellers.”
“With the current rate of urbanisation and with ample evidence that urbanisation affects mental health, there is an immediate need to address mental health in cities of India,” said Prathima Murthy who was accompanied by the former head of Department of Epidemiology, Centre for Public Health, Dr. Gururaj and visiting professor at NIMHANS, Dr. Mohan Isaac.
The Department of Epidemiology, Centre for Public Health, in collaboration with the Community Psychiatry Unit and Telemedicine Centre, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, is also conducting a national-level symposium on urban mental health -- ‘Cities and Mental Health: Covid pandemic unfolded mental health crisis in cities of India today’.
On the occasion, NIMHANS, supported by the Biocon Foundation, released BUMHI module, which aims to provide individuals with adequate skills regarding mental health first-aid through the development and implementation of mental health self-care and informal care programmes in the community.
The knowledge and skillsets required for strengthening mental health self-care and informal care in the community, identified under the Bengaluru Mental Health Initiative (BUMHI) project include self-knowledge, conscientiousness and spirituality, accountability, emotions, stress management, empathy, communication, assertiveness and goal setting.
In his presentation on how urban living affects mental health, Dr. Gururaj said that cities are associated with acute as well as prolonged exposure to stressors, which are closely linked to urban environment. These stressors influence brain functioning ranging from neurodevelopmental at foetal stage to structural and functional alterations throughout life in response to environmental exposures.
“Urban life influencers and stress builders include disintegration of traditional family structure, social isolation, work-life balance, financial stress, work and housing insecurity and increased risk of substance abuse and addiction among youth,” he shared.