26-Mar-2015
Dr M Sureshkumar, Dr N Rangarajan, and Dr Shakuntala Mudhaliar at the event CHENNAI: The stigma and myths linked with psychiatric illnesses,that give it negative aura, has to be broken and the illnesses need to be treated as any other illnesses —with this intention, a new campaign ‘Talk Mental Health’ will take off on March 28 by a newly established trust Sanmati. With increasing instances of mental illnesses in India —one on five individuals according to estimates— the access to services still remains very poor, both with very few people approaching psychiatric services and the number of mental health professionals being very low, say the team behind Sanmati. “The illnesses tend to be marginalised and ostracised. AIDS was once very stigmatised but it has come down now. The same thing needs to be done for these illnesses,” said Dr M Sureshkumar, consultant psychiatrist. While the image of mental illness is usually associated with things like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the most common issues in India are alcoholism and substance abuse, said Dr Sureshkumar. There are likely to be around 20 crore Indians suffering from these ailments. The attitude of the public, including the patients themselves, is an important starting point to increase access to services. “In hospitals, patients who visit psychiatrists also tend to sit in other waiting rooms because they don’t want to be seen as the person visiting a psychiatrist. While they are very proud to say they have diabetes or blood pressure, they do not want to admit if they have a mental illness,” said Lakshmi Rangarajan, a trust member of Sanmiti and a Carnatic musician. “The world ‘mental’ is itself stigmatised. This leads to lack of respect and ostracisation,” said Dr Rangarajan, also a consulting psychiatrist. In the media too, it is the sensationalism— a ‘mental’ person causing havoc—that gets played up rather than positive examples where people have recovered. “We have stories of differently abled people who have been achievers. Why can’t the same be done for mental illnesses?” questioned Dr Sureshkumar. Using social media in a big way to reach out to the youth, and focussing on positive aspects of mental health will be Sanmiti’s way of reaching out to wider audiences and making mental health ‘everybody’s business.’ They will also be partnering with schools to incorporate mental health awareness into the curricular and co-curricular activities to catch the people young. The Trust will be inaugurated on March 28 by film actor Vikram.It is being established in the memory of Dr V Ramachandran, past President of Indian Psychiatric Society. http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Talk-Mental-Health-Cull-the-Stigma/2015/03/26/article2730047.ece -- -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
