Mental health needs immediate focus: Bombay Psychiatric Society

Bombay Psychiatric Society meets governor, urge him to pay attention to the rising mental health issues in the state; psychiatrists say depression and anxiety have been the most common problems during the Covid-19 pandemic

While the city seems to have got control over COVID-19 cases, Bombay Psychiatric Society (BPS), the umbrella body of psychiatrists working in Mumbai, met the governor urging him to also pay attention to the rising mental health issues in the state.

Stating that there’s been a surge in the past 18 months, psychiatrists said there is an urgent need for the government to give priority to mental health like it has given to COVID-19, tuberculosis and other illnesses.

“It was important for us to make him aware of the rising mental health issues in the community. We are seeing multi-fold mental health issues across the age group,” said Dr Avinash De Sousa, BPS president.

During an hour-long conversation with the governor, psychiatrists briefed him on the kind of cases they are seeing in adults, children, senior citizens and women. “We told him that these issues need to be addressed at a government level, policy level. He agreed and was supportive. We plan to follow it up at governmental level,” Dr Sousa said.

Dr Sousa added that there has been a 30-40 per cent rise in mental health issues in the past 18 months. With the advent of tele-consultation, there has been a huge shift in people seeking help for mental health, he added. “This wasn’t the case pre-pandemic. People are ready to take help of psychiatrists and it is a welcome change.”

Dr Milan Balakrishnan, a member of the executive committee, BPS, said this was the first-of-its-kind open discussion on mental health issues in the corridors of power. “It is a sign of mental health issues not being recognised. Still, there is a long way to go as in rural parts, mental health continues to be associated with stigma. We need to extend the awareness reach in rural parts as well,” he said.

 ‘Awareness initiatives’

He added that the government needs to take more initiatives to spread awareness on mental health issues. “The step-motherly treatment given to mental health should stop. Like other illnesses, mental health also should be given priority given the number of people getting affected with it. We need to strengthen the district-level mental health programmes. The implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act has to happen. We need more funds and infrastructure to deal with the rising number of mental health cases in our society,” he said. 

Dr Kersi Chavda, psychiatrist, P D Hinduja Hospital, who was also present at the meet, said depression and anxiety are the most common psychological problems he is witnessing in the pandemic. “COVID-19 itself is known to be changing brain structure. But normally there would be a susceptibility or genetic tendency in the person that will increase the chances of getting it. We are seeing a huge number of people who were basically well maintained and now landing up with more symptoms or who were more or less managing to control their anxiety or depression and now seeking medical help for the first time,” said Dr Chavda.

Dr Harish Shetty, psychiatrist, Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, who had written to the state task force earlier, said there is a need to have a mental health task force. “The impact phase of this disaster has been more than 15 months now. The mental health consequences will be 100 times more than any other disasters. Like we have the sero-survey, we need to have a mental health survey at the earliest,” he added.

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