Mumbai: A mother talking to her daughter, a student chatting with a teacher, two colleagues conversing animatedly - these are among the posters that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been publicising as part of its ‘Lets Talk’ campaign. Through these, the U.N.’s health arm hopes to target stigma surrounding mental health, especially depression, when people find it difficult to talk things out. The campaign will lead up to World Health Day in April, which has depression as its core theme.
Dr. Soumitra Pathare, a Pune-based psychiatrist, says one of the biggest problems with mental health is people don’t want to talk about it because of the stigma attached. “The campaign rightly aims at getting people to talk. Generally, we have have mental health days, but this time, World Health Day is highlighting depression. This will help in getting [society to] look at mental health as any other health issue.”
The pictorial campaign has been designed with cultural variations to suit regions like Africa, Europe, Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. According to the WHO website, “Each poster depicts a conversation between two people about depression: a mother and daughter; a mother with her young baby and a healthcare worker; a student and teacher; two men at work; and an older women with a younger woman.”
The website says depression affects people of all ages, from all walks of life, in all countries. It causes mental anguish and impacts people’s ability to carry out even the simplest everyday tasks, sometimes with devastating consequences for relationships with family and friends and the ability to earn a living. At worst, depression can lead to suicide, which is now the second leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29.
“Depression is often seen as a sign of weakness that keeps people away from seeking help. Eventually, many attempt to end their lives,” says Dr. Milan Balakrishnan, a psychiatrist with Bombay Hospital who feels the ‘Lets Talk’ campaign attempts to bridge the narrow gap between suffering from depression and suicide.
The WHO has released white papers on how depression will be the biggest cause for loss of productive work hours across the world. It says depression affects an estimated 350 million people worldwide. The recent National Mental Health Survey 2015-16 echoes the dangers of mental illnesses, saying only one-fourth of such patients sought help from a healthcare provider. “Ages ago, chicken pox and leprosy were associated with such immense stigma, and governments used similar campaigns to debunk the myths. It’s great that mental health is now focused upon,” psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty says.
