India can boast of just 1,022 seats in higher education sector for mental health with focus on just one branch of the 50-odd branches that the western countries have already achieved expertise in.
With the World Mental Health Day being observed on October 10, psychologists and psychiatrists rue the wide gap between the demand and supply of mental healthcare and professionals.
“While the projected number of 26 crore Indians who are in need of mental healthcare refers to those with specific diagnosis, the number that remains undiagnosed is manifold,” says Meena Hariharan, professor of psychology at University of Hyderabad.
She says government’s statistics show that about 26 crore Indians need mental health intervention. However, it is appalling to note that the number of psychiatrists working in healthcare sector per one lakh population is 0.301 while the number of psychologists is 0.047. And what’s more depressing is that the number of psychiatrists and psychologists under training is a further hopeless figure of 0.0364 for psychiatrists and 0.010 for psychologists per one lakh population.
Lack of enough mental healthcare professionals poses a serious threat to those who need help, but a more serious problem is the involvement of any random educated person who opens a shop and offers his/her ‘expertise’ by extending ‘counselling’ ‘personality development’ or ‘stress management’ to the gullible.
While there is a need for trained and professional counsellors in this sector, the underlying danger of untrained persons getting into ‘business’ is a reality. “This has serious implications. One wrong gesture, one wrong usage of word and one untimely pointer is sufficient to play havoc with the life of the person in depression, anxiety or severe stress,” says Prof. Meena Hariharan.
Reports say that in India, there are 10.9 suicides per one lakh population and there is a need to investigate how many of these suicides happen due to mishandling by inadvertent unprofessional counsellors. C. Beena, former professor at Department of Psychology, Osmania University, too concurs with the argument saying that more professionals need to be trained. In fact, she set up “Sahayam Centre” on the campus to deal with students who have suicidal tendencies and depression.
