“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, pilot of the ill-fated AI-171 Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick flight route, called out to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) seconds after taking off at 1.39 pm on June 12 from Ahmadabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The Mayday call informed a helpless ATC that the aircraft was not achieving the thrust to sustain the take-off, and that they were “falling”. Seconds later, the aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel, turning into a fireball, killing 241 of the 242 individuals on board and several others on the ground, taking the toll to 270.
Each air tragedy shocks people, a sudden and unexpected halt on hopes, dreams and aspirations of not only those whose lives are consumed, but also their grieving near and dear ones. Relationships turn into mere memories of once-shared lives. It leaves a bitter after-taste of experiencing the lives of those known so closely being suddenly nipped in the bud, of lifelines mercilessly severed. A closure without explanations or justifications. This is what makes air tragedies more shocking – that one ill-fated incident can wipe out so many lives in one cruel swipe.
Such tragedies evoke a lot of emotions, anger and frustration. However, there is another tragedy which is in the making, but fails to attract attention. There are “Mayday calls”, but not many hear them. They gradually move through a living disaster as they suffer in silence – which, if continued to be ignored, can lead them to live extremely disturbed and quality-affected lives, and worse, even consider extreme steps.
This “tragedy in the making” is mental illness, to which it is most difficult to put a number while estimating how widely it has spread.
Hyper-competition is now embedded and accepted as “part of life”. In an increasingly complicated world, in which the double-edged sword of ‘social media’ casts its negative impacts on sensitive minds, it works like a well-oiled machine to afflict a growing number of people with mental illness. The Covid-19 pandemic inflicted a cruel blow, bringing with it social isolation, job loss, and major disruption to healthcare and education, that made matters worse across age-groups.
Mental health issues are a growing burden in Karnataka with cases of anxiety, depression and substance abuse becoming rampant. Although cases cannot be counted because of its inherently hidden nature, one can feel the increase in cases with a rising number of suicides linked to mental health issues being reported. With no “ATC” to help, they are crashing!
It is not that the Karnataka government isn’t doing anything. The state government has established Tele-MANAS centres at National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) and Dharwad Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (DIMHANS) for tele-mental health services to be offered to the affected.
The state health & family welfare department has developed the mental healthcare management system, called e-Manas, with NIMHANS and International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) to monitor and support district mental health programmes. It has established brain health clinics at secondary care hospitals to provide neurological care and referrals.
It has trained Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers and healthcare professionals to identify and support those with mental health issues. It has carried out programmes integrating faith healing with conventional psychotropic medications under the ‘Dava and Dua’ programme.
But the same inherent concealment that is characteristic of mental health issues makes it all the more challenging for appropriate counseling and treatment to reach the affected.
The challenge lies in identifying individuals with mental health issues. For that to happen, it is the first responders who need to be aware of mental health issues and how to identify them. Close family and friends of those possibly getting affected by mental health issues are the ideal first responders – who can play the role of effective “Air Traffic Controllers” who can respond to their “Mayday” calls by observing behavioural changes. They can support the affected to access help through counselling or medical treatment, or both. They are the best suited to respond to mitigate it.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of awareness about mental health issues among the potential first responders. That has become the biggest hindrance in mitigating the growing problem because it prevents help-seeking and compromises problem-detection.
There are other problems too. Shortage of psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health professionals, especially in rural areas, and the prevailing stigma surrounding mental illnesses only makes it worse. As a result, many of those urgently needing assistance do not get it, creating a treatment gap.
The state government, non-government organisations and health activists have to embark on a determined drive to spread awareness, which is urgently needed for students right from middle-school upwards, parents, employees at workplaces and senior citizens. Without that, those affected will continue to suffer without adequate numbers of first responders – because the latter are the “Air Traffic Controllers” in mental health, who can guide them with “adequate thrust to sustain takeoffs” or ensure their “safe landings”, but no “crashes”.