Mental Health Policy

Then Union Health Ministry on October 10, 2015 launched India’s first-ever National Mental Health Policy to provide universal psychiatric care to the population 20% of which are likely to be suffering some form of mental illness by 2020. The policy seeks to include psychiatric treatment in primary health care.

Key Points

• Significantly, the Mental Health Policy was launched on the first ever National Mental Health Day organised by the government.
• The Policy’s objective is to provide universal access to mental health care by enhancing understanding of mental health and strengthening leadership in the mental health sector at all levels. It will have a pro-poor orientation because only the creamy layer of society presently has access to mental healthcare in India today.
• The Policy is backed up by the “Mental Health Action Plan 365”. It clearly spells out the specific roles to be played by the Central government, the state governments, local bodies and civil society organisations.

Salient Features

• It emphasises the need for greater funding: While making a case for expanding mental health budgets, the policy states, “Spending on health by the government is not expenditure but a social investment and a social right.”
• It identifies vulnerable groups: The policy document contains a comprehensive list of these different groups, which include the poor (who are linked with mental illnesses in a “negative vicious cycle”), the homeless (who have “no provision for care and support”), persons in custodial institutions (who face a “deprivation of personal liberty”), orphans, children, the elderly and people affected by emergencies and various natural or man-made disasters.
• It puts the focus on care-givers: Acknowledging that family members are the main care-givers of the mentally ill in India, the policy aims to give families access to information and guided access to special services.
• It focuses on the promotion of mental health: In addition to the treatment of mental illnesses, the policy also stresses the need to prevent such problems and promote mental health.
• It seeks to decriminalise suicide: the policy officially aims to decriminalise attempted suicide, which is currently a much-debated punishable offence in India (Note: The suiicde has finally been decriminalised in India).

What is Mental Disability?

• Mental Health Problems refers to conditions ranging from psycho-social distress affecting a large number of people to mental illness and mental disability affecting a relatively small number of people.
• Mental illness refers to specific conditions such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Depression or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
• Mental Disability refers to disability associated with mental illness. While mental illness is a medical construct, disability is better understood using a medico-social model and the two terms are not used synonymously in the Mental Health policy.
• Persons with mental illness and person (s) with mental health problems refers to persons who have mental illness and mental health problems respectively.
• Recovery is being defined as a process of change through which individuals improve their health and well-being, live a self-directed life and strive to reach their full potential.