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Mental Health in rural India




Dikshita


          Mental Health services in India today are abysmal. Statistics show that over 60 million people suffer from some kind of mental illness every year. Out of them, hardly 20-30% receives the care required to treat the underlying illness. Why is there such a huge gap in health care within the mental health community today? One of the most prevalent reasons is the doctor-patient ratio in psychiatry. For a country with 1.2 billion people, a total of 150,000 doctors are essential to delivering interventions at the right time. However, the actual number is more than startling. The total number of psychiatrists in a developing country like India roughly touches the margin of 3,500. This huge gap within the required professionals and people who need their services has left millions of patients untreated. A total of 800,000 people die every year in India due to suicide alone. The numbers are even scarier in rural India with more than half the rural population of India going undiagnosed and untreated when it comes to mental health.
          To fill this gap, Dr. Vikram Patel, an Indian Psychiatrist famous for his works in child development and helping rural people with mental health resources has launched a task-shifting program in the Indian villages. In his TedTalk at TedGlobal in 2012, he emphasized on the lack of awareness and professional services in India and the staggering number of untreated people living in developing countries at the moment. He further describes the importance of early interventions in mental health-related illnesses. Mr. Patel’s answer to this gap in rural India is simple, if there is a shortage of specialized professionals in the community then use people from within the community to provide early care to individuals. His idea is task shifting; moving tasks from specialized professionals to more available, accessible people in the community. He is facilitating this transition by training people within the community who are providing healthcare to mental health patients. A number of such programs are launched in developing countries every year and the results are astonishing.
          As a result of Vikram and his team’s efforts, there has been a 20 percent jump in the recovery rates of people with mental health illnesses in India and 11 percent decline in suicide rates falling from a 20 to 9 percent. This speaks volume of the kind of impact early intervention can have on mental illnesses. His method of task shifting has brought about efficient, economical and accessible health care services to people living in rural India. His methods also play a vital role in empowering the individuals who are trained to carry out mental health services in their communities. They learn the value of helping people, find a purpose and in turn, learn how to be better guardians for themselves and people around them.

Apart from the needs and treatment gap, there is the problem of stigma attached to mental illnesses. On interviewing people in villages on mental health, researchers have found stories of hidden suffering, shame, and guilt. This makes it difficult for people to seek out and ask for help creating an even bigger line between caregivers and care receivers. A number of traditional beliefs also play a part in the widening of the gap. Due to low literacy rates in these parts of the country, people aren’t aware of the facts circling mental health issues. This leads to the adoption of superstitious and religious acts to relieve the person of their illness. A number of NGOs like Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK), Hazaribagh are working in rural areas in partnership with 23 NGOs in 14 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand. We need many such NGOs to bridge this huge gap between caregivers and care receivers in rural India. 
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