Opinion: Every day is Mental Health Day

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By Forum Lalka, Moitrayee Das

Recognizing and celebrating just one particular day or week before and after ‘October 10’ for mental health is not enough to bring about the necessary changes and reforms. While we acknowledge the fact that discussions, debates and actions have jump-started the work on mental health, there is still a long way to go.

The kind of attention and importance that this crucial space deserves is not yet found in the Indian context, and a number of factors could explain this. For starters, while we can still discuss mental health in the individual context, the fact is that it is greatly affected by one’s socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions and is impacted across multiple levels of caste, class, gender, and sexuality. .

Several layers of inequalities in the population indicate that mental health is a collective and political problem. Mental health The issues pose one of the greatest public health concerns, with poor and disadvantaged sections of society bearing the greatest burden of mental illness (James et al, 2018).

grim reality

Much is said about the importance of mental health; however, the reality is grim as the mental health sector in India is severely under-resourced in every possible way. There is a severe shortage of mental health professionals in India (psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and psychiatric social workers). We desperately need trained professionals in this field to be able to adequately address the ever-increasing daily challenges. While it is a fact that there is an urgent need for an adequate number of mental health professionals to meet the challenges of India’s growing population, at this point it is crucial to ask again, how do we ensure that the reach of these services is truly visible and implemented for all segments of the population and not limited only to the privileged sectors.

To begin with, the allocation of funds for the mental health sector is grossly inadequate. There is great inequality in the distribution of funds to government-run organizations that focus on mental health, with the main focus on NIMHANS, Bengaluru and LGBRIMH, Tezpur. Without a doubt, these institutions are fundamental in this sector, but so are the other government organizations that focus on mental health. Such concentrations and underfunding will eventually make it difficult to successfully implement and access mental health services to the general population. The accessibility and implementation of mental health services are two facets that definitely influence the success of work in this area.

base levels

Policy and curriculum reforms, advocacy, research, the right way to practice, and the judicious allocation of funds to propagate mental health at the grassroots level are the needs of the hour. The narrative needs a shift from ‘let’s talk about mental health as it’s a taboo subject’ to ‘let’s make this initiative work to incorporate mental health as a topic that students learn in schools while adults embrace it as part of lifestyle in the workplace’. Addressing myths, stigma, stereotypes, and fundamental changes in everyday conversations is difficult but possible. To introduce reforms, we need data on the areas that require reforms. The real impact and understanding of mental health problems is still far from the grasp of the layman. Therefore, thorough research to understand where and what the knowledge gap is can help create effective plans.

Educational institutes and workplaces are two areas that have introduced some reforms in the way they view the mental well-being of the members of their ecosystems. Despite mandatory school counselors and making workplaces mental health sensitive, implementation is at a crawl and there is a fundamental failure to understand the entire process. the NCRBThe 2021 Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report shows the drastic increase in student suicides during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and its steady rise.

While mental health initiatives, programs, and policies initiated by workplaces, organizations, and educational institutions are important, it is important to understand that these should not be treated as “blanket solutions” for deeper toxic, unhealthy, and dangerous spaces. unaddressed in which people are, whether at school or work. Recognizing and addressing the triggers, causes and consequences of the problems people face and why they face them are of paramount importance before launching a program to ‘solve’ the problem. The methods would be ineffective if the problem at hand is misunderstood.

The rule

We need to accept that physical well-being is closely related to mental health well-being and vice versa. Accepting that a student might want to skip class because she is having a difficult day emotionally or a bad mental health day has to start becoming the norm. An employee taking advantage of a few days’ leave to rejuvenate her mental health is another vital step.

According to Dr. Malik Merchant, a consultant psychiatrist at Wockhardt Hospital, “The concept of a mental health day is novel and worth thinking about. The practice of mental health hygiene should not only be to prevent mental illness, but should help achieve optimal functioning of the person. The concept of mental health leave and access to workplace/school counselors, among many others, are not distant and unidentifiable concepts for most in the Indian context. The effort must be to work continuously to save this growing inequality in all segments of the population.

Science has helped us understand and develop new information and tools that have revolutionized the way we live. It is important to ensure that the scope of each service and development is made for the entire population. Policy reforms at all levels are needed to bring about systemic changes that address the huge gap in mental health needs. There needs to be an understanding of individual differences, from the basic foundational levels to the societal level and beyond. The “one size fits all” approach will never work for this space. The importance of mental health when instilled as part of our lifestyle can bring about lasting change.

When each of us is equipped to take charge of our own mental well-being, a proactive society emerges because there is autonomy to manage our own mental health. Sensitivity towards our own mental health is immensely essential to being empathic with those around us and we need the right systems and structures to make this a reality for all.