The government faced with challenges in improving infrastructure facilities to ensure that patients with mental illness have a good mental care access, must push the private healthcare providers and partners to make available adequate mental health services across platforms, said Dr. Sameer Khan, chief of business at CallHealth, a technology-powered healthcare company.
Lack of availability of a solid infrastructure and the service centric nature of the Indian health system, has exacerbated the accessibility to mental health institutions and practitioners especially in both urban and rural areas, added Dr Khan.
The Indian population suffers from an enormous burden of mental illness. With at least 57 million of the population suffering from mental health conditions, i.e. 1 in every 22 people, the Indian health infrastructure is struggling to support these staggering numbers. The country spends 0.06 per cent of the GDP on mental illness. Low expenditure on mental health has resulted in existence of a poor infrastructure for persons with mental conditions. India has only 40 institutions and less than 26,000 beds for patients and currently 35 lakh people require immediate hospitalisation on account of mental illness, according to NIMHANS.
India is short of 66,200 psychiatrists and the penetration levels remain lower in district and sub-district level hampering the patients' accessibility to services, he added.
Technology coupled with preventive measures must be undertaken to resolve the issue. Technology is a great enabler in creating accessibility to services. It can help close the gap by connecting practitioners sitting miles away from the patient, yet enabling the patient to consult with the doctor on line (Screen or Telephone). Technology can also further the present studies in the field and can add credibility and novelty to the practise, said Dr Khan.
Today, the number of telephonic subscribers reaching close to a billion (957.61 million as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). An outreach in the mobile age is no more a problem, and we can leverage this to reach out to the populace, thus making counselling freely available, & affordable, he added.
Welcoming the passage of Mental Health Bill recently, he said that it will bring about a change in the overwhelming numbers of persons affected with mental illnesses.
The Bill has been structured to provide, protect, promote and fulfill the rights of all persons with mental illness and provides with ‘advance directives’, which enables a person with mental illness to choose the method of treatment and nominate a representative. The bills will also see to deeper penetration of mental health services considering, an average of, 70.5 per 1,000 are persons with mental illness in rural areas.
Apart from fixing the legalities and infrastructure for the persons with mental illness, the bill must look at building awareness, for the same, from the ground up. It will imbibe in people the need to take preventive measures and safeguard those with mental illness, around them.
Considering that 65- 70 per cent of the populace resides in rural India, the bill has to not only make available mental health centres but also set a connect with the masses and raise awareness from the ground up. Technology can enable set up mass awareness campaigns, he concluded.