There is only one government-run mental health institute at Erragadda for the entire State and that is not enough to attend to all mental health issues, pointed out psychiatrist Purnima Nagaraja at the India Infrastructure Dialogue Series on ‘Healthy Hyderabad - Accelerating Health Care Transformation’ organised at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here on Sunday.
Though MBBS students are posted at the Institute of Mental Health, Erragadda, as part of house surgeonship, some of them do not attend duty regularly, leading to lack of awareness on health issues such as depression and schizophrenia.
Citing World Health Organisation’s observation, Dr. Nagaraja said, “By 2050, mental health issues such as depression is going to overtake cardiac illness as the number one killer. We need a mental health policy that works for us.”
Vasuprada Karthic, a psychotherapist, said that stress in various forms in affecting mental health, which eventually causes damage to physical health, which is called psychosomatic ailments.
Talking about the lack of supportive ecosystems in urban spaces, she said that there is breakdown of relationships in urban spaces. In a few cases, couples who live in cities are falling apart because of work pressure and not finding quality time for each other. Besides, parents are not available for children, she added.
