BETWEEN NOW & 2030 MENTALLY ILLNESS WILL CUT INDIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH BY $11 TRILLION

BETWEEN NOW & 2030 MENTALLY ILLNESS WILL CUT INDIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH BY $11 TRILLION

India is one of the first countries to develop a national mental health programme in the early 1980s and yet the   country is  witnessing growing cases of mental illness. When it comes to ensure treatment and institutional capacity to integrate mentally ill in the society, sadly it ranks 11th among 15 nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

This has been revealed by the Asia-Pacific region Mental Health Integration Index which was released recently. The report cautioned that between now and 2030, mentally illness will reduce economic growth by $11 trillion in India.

India figured in the lower half for each of the indices just behind China and Thailand, while Australia and New Zealand claimed top position - Pakistan and Indonesia came at the bottom, said the study undertaken by the Economic Intelligence Union (EIU) and commissioned and funded by Janssen Asia Pacific, a division of Johnson & Johnson.

It noted that within months of India adopting its new Mental Health Policy “its total health budget was slashed by 20 per cent”. Worse still, “lack of institutional capacity meant that even the restricted funding available, was not always spent,” it said.

In India in 2012-2013, “only 42 per cent of the budget for the National Mental Health Programme was used,” the report said.

The index relied on four major indicators - provision of a stable family environment, work opportunities, access to health care and social services, governance, human rights and combating stigma.

In countries, such as Australia and Singapore, under half of those with a mental illness receive medical care, while only one-tenth get so in India and China.

George Institute for Global Health India’s Deputy Director and Head of Research and Development, Dr Pallab Maulik, who was one of the advisors on the study, talked about one particular project ‘SMART Mental Health’ in West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh in which he is involved.

“When we started implementing the project, we realised that there was little or no awareness about common mental disorders in the community, and systems of mental health care were almost non-existent,” he said.

After the village level health workers and doctors were sensitized, we found that there was a relative increase in service use in the mentally ill population…This shows that models of community-based care involving technology and appropriate training of primary care health workers can help put the focus on mental health in rural areas, increase screening and facilitate mental health care” said Dr. Maulik.

Magnitude of mental illness is on increase in India. As per a latest countrywide National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (Nimhans) study at least 13.7 per cent of India's general population has been projected to be suffering from a variety of mental illnesses and 10.6 per cent of this requires immediate intervention. 

(THE PIONEER)