Mental health in India
[2] However, human resources and expertise in the field of mental health in India is significantly low when compared to the population of the country.
[5] The first Western-style mental healthcare institutions date back to the factories of the East India Company in the 17th century.
Colonel Taylor noted that "Every mental hospital which I have visited is disgracefully under-staffed" as well as run by unqualified staff, lacking experience and training.
[10] However in certain cases such as the Child Guidance Clinic of the Sir Dorabji Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Col Taylor commented that he was "greatly impressed by the work".
[11] 1980s onwards, public interest litigations (PILs) in India have been successful in bringing forward "horror tales of insane prisoners", "mental hospital (used as) dumping ground(s) for (the) unwanted" and the "callous conditions (that) plague (the) dustbins of society".
Dayal, the court held that the mental hospital resembled a "medieval torture house" and that a complete renovation was needed.
[19] In November 1997, in response to the PILs the Supreme Court directed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to monitor specific mental hospitals across the country.
[20] Pratima Murthy from NIMHANS writes that the report was a landmark in "highlighting the state of mental health services in India.
The positive changes were attributed to separate budgets for hospitals, monitoring by agencies such as NHRC, involvement of the leadership and raising awareness of the families related to patient care.
This poor progress was attributed to various reasons such as social isolation of the institutions, large bed strengths and lack of state government involvement in areas such as release of funds and supporting change.
[34] The Indian Psychiatric Society suggested a draft in 1950, however it was only given assent by the President in May 1987, and implemented in 1993 as the Mental Health Act 1987.
However, the majority of insurance companies exclude large number of mental conditions from full coverage of the policy.
Psychologs magazine started India's largest mental health campaign, "Utsaah" where more than one lakh people participate yearly.
[47] The burden of mental health problems in India is estimated to be 2,443 DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) per 100,000 population.
[52] In the run up to the 2019 Indian general election, the Indian Psychiatry Society asked politicians not to use the word 'mental' or similar terms such as "mental instability", "mad" or "send them to a mental hospital" when talking about their opponents, and informed the Election Commission of India of the same.
[58] Mental illness is portrayed in most of Indian cinema with excessive dramatization, minimal sensitivity or scientific credibility, to the extent that psychiatric treatments become tools of punishment and causes of insanity— Funtoosh, Pagla Kahin Ka, Sholay, Khalnayak, Baazigar, Kaun,[59] Anjaana Anjaani and No Entry.
[63] During a study conducted in 2022 in India, it was observed that around 32% of the patients initially sought assistance from general medical practitioners, followed by consultations with psychiatrists and faith healers.
