In our country, the discovery of mental illness is often followed by denial and hesitation to seek help. Despite its enormous social burden, mental health remains a taboo subject that is susceptible to age-old stigmas, prejudices, and fears. Even though mental disorders can be cured or controlled, most people tend to sweep their issues under the carpet and suffer in silence. Because in our country, every mental condition is seen as being ‘paagal (mad)’. This is feared by those who suffer and hence they tend to hide the truth about their mental illness?
India’s healthcare budget in 2018, was 528 billion rupees (roughly $7 billion), out of which 500 million rupees (about $6.6 million) were for mental health, which was reduced to 400 million (approximately $5.7 million) in the following year. However, India has spent only 50 million rupees (roughly $650,000) annually on mental health. The amount spent on mental health comes about to 33 paise ($0.004) per mental health patient if we take into account the 150 million people requiring urgent care.
Further, India has 9,000 psychiatrists or one doctor for every 100,000 people. The desirable number of psychiatrists is three for every 100,000 people. This means India has a shortage of 18,000 mental health doctors. It’s no wonder that the economic loss to the Indian economy caused by a mental health crisis is estimated to be more than $1 trillion between 2012 and 2030, according to the WHO. (figures referred here are from a medical journal published by The Lancet) In stark contrast, the government expenditure on defence is currently five times its spending on overall healthcare.
Educating people about mental wellbeing is altogether another battle in itself. Stigma remains the main blockage in the delivery of mental healthcare. It has been found across various studies that attitudes of doctors of other specialities and other healthcare professionals also contribute to stigma due to their lack of knowledge and awareness about psychiatry and mental health problems.
One of the most common mental illnesses is depression. But to people, depression is nothing more than just a mood swing. Doctors prescribe anti-depressants and some not so useful sets of advice. They don’t go deep into the problems of the patient, but instead, give them advice which isn’t practical. There are some proficient doctors too but they are unaffordable to many. Hence, getting good counselling isn’t a piece of cake for everyone.
This issue of not properly dealing with mental health is very common. Even family members and friends don’t exactly think about any psychological issues to be the cause of any problem with anyone’s personality or mood. They would rather blame it on superstitious beliefs such as “Buri Nazar, Kala Jadu” etc. (evil eye) Accepting that the root cause may be related to the mind isn’t easy or in most cases is never accepted at all. And if some people openly discuss suffering from any mental illness, they are labelled as attention seekers.
So, in the end, it can be said that not only do we need to actively foster awareness about mental health, we also need to create awareness about the absurdity of the stigmas attached to mental health to eradicate them.