Comprehensive Status of Mental Health in India

Abstract

World Health Organization has clearly stated that mental well-being can only be justified if a person is contributing optimally in social, cultural and economic domains by adequately coping with daily stresses, but this definition is far from feasible than actually it seems to be. Income inequality, variation in GDP’s contribution towards health across globe and other socio- economic and environmental factor had subserve mental illness worldwide across socio-demographic variables like age group, gender, income etc. In case of India, the number of people suffering from mental illness has exceeded the population of South Africa and deterioration has been observed exponentially. With only 0.6% allocation for mental health from entire health budget which is less than 2 % of the GDP, future of Indian mental well-being seems grim. This theoretical paper will highlight the current statistics on mental health infrastructure, dichotomy between mental health professional and patient ratio, sluggish implementation of District Mental Health Program (DMHP), importance of psychiatric social worker and psychiatric nurse in the context of community. Further, suggestions on streamlining mental health data in order to make it more inclusive for the patients, their family members and the community as whole is given.