*Report For those who missed watching*
* * *Panel Discussion on Mental Health Care Bill 2012* * * CNN IBN in their *Face the Nation *Programme telecast on Thursday the 18thOctober 2012 presented a Panel Discussion on *Mental Health Care Bill 2012. *The panellists were Dr. Nimesh Desai, Harish Mander, Javed Abidi, Akhileshwar Sahay and Vandana Gopikumar. The programme started with referring to the high rates of suicides including that of Varsha Bhonsle. Some basic statistics were given about the high number of mentally ill in our country and a low percentage getting treatment. Lower third was effectively used in giving salient features of the Bill and also the views of the Human Right Activists. Even Help Line numbers were being displayed. Care was taken in the visuals to blur the faces. Sagrika Ghose the hostess had done her home-work. She nicely summed up the views of the panellists and ensured that all the panellists got equal opportunity to speak. Javed Abidi was not at his best and lacked punch for which he is known. Sagrika made him leave the bureaucratic issues concerning the two ministries and address substantive issues in the Bill. Javed alleged that the bill gave with one hand and took away with the other. The Advance Directive and the appointment of a nominated representative could be over ruled on a request from a mental health professional or a relative. He was critical of provisions in regard to involuntary admissions. He agreed with Nimesh Desai about coming up of outreach models but said that for each such success story there were 10 black sheep (sic). Disagreeing with Akhileshwar about the need to increase the number of beds, he said that along with beds come solitary confinement and chaining. Javed agreed with some of the points made by Vandana and Akhileshwar. He was led by Sagrika to accept that it would be wrong to say that every word and every paragraph in the bill was wrong. *Some parts in the Bill were extremely good and extremely progressive and nobody was saying that the entire bill was bad.* It was a big departure from the stand that the Bill should be dropped altogether and the Disability Bill alone was good enough. On being prompted by Sagrika, Javed complained about the bias in favour of private sector and government promoting institutionalisation even post CRPD. In the last 10 years, there was mushroom growth of 500 private mental health facilities. He admitted briefly the institutions might be needed but soon corrected himself to say that not institutions but mental health facilities were needed which could be community based. He said that beds meant chaining. He criticised registration based merely on an application on a piece of paper, without any inspection and a penalty of only Rs. 50,000 for unregistered facilities. He got away with his half- truths. Akhileshwar Sahay gave credit to his wife for his recovery and highlighted the importance of doctors and the family in recovery. He cautioned that missing on medicines was an invitation to lunacy. Young persons who claimed that they could manage without medicines could end up in asylums. The number of beds which was 10,000 in 1946 had only doubled to 20, 00 in over 60 years which was highly inadequate. He disagreed that beds meant chaining and said that the Draft Bill had banned chaining and restraints and seclusion could be used only when there was a risk of physical injury. Accusing the critics of not reading the bill properly, Akhileshwar said that the institutionalisation was the last resort for persons with mental illness in need of high support. There were enough built in safe guards including review by mental health commission. He also stressed on the need for de-stigmatisation, non-discrimination and access to treatment. He said that Advance Directive and setting up of Mental Health Commission were the 2 revolutionary provisions of the Bill. Vandana spoke with passion and stressed that the Bill focused on providing mental health care at the grass root level by extending the coverage from 123 districts to the all 614 districts in the country. The rights have to be understood in a broader sense. The right to access to care and treatment was more important than any other right. The Bill promoted continuous care and mandated community care. Only in exceptional cases, where the admission was inevitable, provision was made for institutional care with a right to appeal against such admission. Harish Mander who was introduced as a social activist and as the one who approved the Bill said that the Bill addressed the rights of the persons with mental illness and provided dignity to them. There would be periods when there would be need for involuntary care and treatment. He shared concern of Javed about the danger in the growth of private institutions, which could prompt forcible admissions for the sake of profiteering and making up of the bottom lines of psychiatrists and wanted that the provision for affordable care should be replaced with free care. Nimesh Desai said that the Bill attempted to provide treatment to more persons. Where there was severe illness and lack of capacity, a balancing act was required vis-à-vis their human rights. He stressed the need for a continuous dialogue. He agreed with Javed that there was a potential danger of the Bill usurping the rights of primary caregivers and provisions in regard to Advance directives needed fine tuning. He said that on positive side in the last 10/12 years good successful outreach models outside institutions had been developed. The discussion contributed in a big way in creating awareness about the Bill. Kudos to CNN IBN for an educative show on Mental Health Care Bill and to Sagrika for anchoring it so well. -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
