Last year, R. Thara, director, Schizophrenia Research Foundation, sent a young woman who had acute appendicitis, to a city hospital. “Just because she was mentally ill, no one even looked at her for a day and a half, despite her mother appealing to doctors. It was only when her appendix ruptured and she became critically ill that she was treated,” says Dr. Thara.
Discrimination of people with mental illnesses by healthcare professionals, experts say, is common and a growing cause for concern. It is not just in India — studies show that the problem exists in both developing and developed countries. And it is not just general healthcare professionals. Mental healthcare professionals discriminate too as does society, says Vandana Gopikumar of The Banyan, an NGO that works in the area of mental health.
“For instance, homeless people with mental illnesses or those with persistent forms of mental illnesses are often denied care by mental health institutes or psychiatrists. The stigma comes from a fear of dealing with the less known,” she says.
One of the problems, says R. Sathianathan, professor of psychiatry at Sri Ramachandra University, is that most doctors do not have much exposure to mental healthcare, and tend to become jittery when faced with patients who have mental illnesses.
“The undergraduate medical curriculum does not give importance to psychiatry and so, their basic knowledge of mental health disorders is poor. Most doctors think patients with mental illnesses will become aggressive or violent — when actually, it is rare. Since their training is inadequate, they are always worried about negative consequences,” he says.
This stigmatisation has serious consequences — there is an increasing mortality of people with mental illnesses owing to physical ailments, says Dr. Thara. Though this has a number of causes, including delayed seeking of help, lifestyle issues and side effects of drugs, not being given proper care or being sent from hospital to hospital in search of treatment contributes to it, she says, adding that lack of insurance coverage for even serious mental illnesses compounds the problem.
In August, the family of a woman with schizophrenia had said she was denied treatment at a private hospital in the city, when she had had a spinal injury. “My mother is doing well now, but it was a horrible experience,” her son says.
The mental and physical health of people is linked — making it essential for those with mental illnesses to get timely, suitable treatment, says Dr. Thara.
So what can be done? “Legislation that ensures that anyone who requires care has access to it, building capacities in at least some institutes in every State to respond to the complex needs of people with mental illnesses and more dialogue with all stakeholders are crucial,” says Ms. Gopikumar.
What you can do
*Realise that all kinds of people make up our world: don't be bound by what the majority sees as the norm |
*Challenge social order when needed and be open to diverse realities and differences |
*Promote social inclusion by encouraging participation, keeping personal judgement at bay and engaging meaningfully with people with mental health issues. |
*It is known that human connection promotes personal recovery |
(Source: The Banyan)
Mental health in India: huge gap in services provided
| 1 | Close to 10 per cent of the country’s population suffers from a minor mental illness such as anxiety and depression |
| 2 | Between 1 and 1.5 per cent suffer from major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. |
| 3 | The burden of these disorders is likely to increase to 15 per cent by 2020. |
| 4 | There is a huge shortage of mental health professionals — as per 2012 estimates, India only has about 30 per cent of required psychiatrists, 25 per cent of psychiatric nurses and only 3 per cent of clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers. |
| 5 | This comes to 4,000 psychiatrists, 500 clinical psychologists, 300 psychiatric social workers and about a 1,000 psychiatric nurses. |
| 6 | In Tamil Nadu, there are around 400 psychiatrists and less than 100 clinical psychologists. “There is a huge brain drain of mental health professionals. There are more Indian psychiatrists outside the country than within it,” said R. Thara, director, Schizophrenia Research Foundation. |
