Ashok A Desai, Chief Justice of the Uttaranchal High Court, called upon the psychiatrists to have a fresh look at the definition of Mental Health and also change their attitude towards people suffering from mental illness.
Inaugurating the four-day 55th National Annual Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society 2003 (ANCIPS-2003) in Hyderabad on Thursday night, with mental health movement towards violence prevention as the theme, Justice Desai raised several issues which should be of concern to the society, in particular the psychiatrists. He said mental illness was not like any physical illness. It was more a psychological problem than a biological problem. Mental health could be achieved through meditation, yoga, spiritualism and counselling and not through medication.
Reacting to the demand for amending the Mental Health Act and making the subject a super-speciality in hospitals, Justice Desai said too much dependence on legislation would not be healthy for the society. Violence was not a medical problem and he asked the psychiatrists to reconsider their demands. He hoped the four-day deliberations would come up with solutions to save the society from mentally imbalanced people and also save such people from the unscrupulous society. Home Minister Devender Goud, who was the chief guest, said violence was on the increase and there was a need to evolve measures to control violence. He said the state government had introduced several steps to educate the police to become more people-friendly in dealing with social issues. He hoped the conference would come out with implementable ideas and strategies to prevent violence.
Minister for Panchayati Raj, Dr N Janardhan Reddy, asked psychiatrists to extend their services to the rural areas where medical doctors were of little help to people suffering from psychological problems. He talked about the suicide tendencies among the villagers, especially the farmers, and stressed the need for counselling to eliminate the problem. Dr P Raghurami Reddy, Organising Committee Chairman, said more than 2,500 delegates, including 300 from abroad, were attending the conference, because of their great concern over increasing violence in the society.
People were looking towards psychiatrists for a solution to prevent violence. He said because of the differing interpretation of the Mental Health Act, 1987, there was a fresh need for the government and the mental health authorities to amend the Act and make it more practical. IPS National president V Palaniappan, president-elect R Ponnudurai, general secretary Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, CME chairman E Mohan Das and Hyderabad chapter chairman K Chandrasekhar also spoke at the inaugural function. Earlier, inaugurating the continuing medical education (CME) programme, Dr Kakarla Subba Rao, Director and Vice-Chancellor of NIMS, said violence was a universal phenomenon, not confined to any country or geographical area.
It was the expression of a sick mind. The cause of violence was due to the genetic components in individuals as well as external influences. While 40 per cent can be attributed to genetic factor, 60 per cent of the violent tendencies are acquired by an individual from the society because of social indifferences, injustice meted out to him or her, jealousy and other factors.
He said mental health must be given importance in school curriculum together with health education. Mental health and health education must go together. He advised psychiatrists to empathise with the patients while dealing with mental disorders.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr Applebaum, president of American Psychiatric Association. Other prominent speakers during the four-day conference include Sir David Goldberg, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Psychiatry, London, Lady Ilfra Goldberg, Thomas A Fahy, Professor of Forensic Mental Health, Institute of Psychiatry, London, and internationally well-known Indian psychiatrists Dr K Siva Kumar, Dr Raghu Gaind, Dr V Rama Rao and Prof. Dinesh Bhugra, all from UK.