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Shrink isn't in: Dearth of psychiatrists in India
Published on Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 18:14, Updated on Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 16:14 in Health section
Tags: Psychiatrists, Psychologists , New Delhi
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New Delhi: This Mental Health Awareness Week, CNN-IBN does a status check on the facilities available revealing a shocking state of affairs in the country. There are some 4,000 trained psychiatrists available to deal with an estimated four crore Indians suffering.
With one farmer suicide reported every eight minutes in the country, Vidarbha in Maharashtra is just the tip of the iceberg.
The World Health Organisation says the number of suicides in India could be reduced by at least 1/4th if counselling is given on time. That is one in four lives could be saved, but there's an alarming shortage of trained psychiatrists.
"Recent reports seem to suggest that there are only about 4,000 psychiatrists and even lesser psychologists, trained mental health professionals in our country for a population of 40 million," says Dr Arpita Anand.
The National Human Rights Commission has taken the matter up with the Medical Council of India as a "serious human rights issue".
Fifteen per cent of all health related disabilities in the country could be attributed to mental illness. Yet it accounts for less than one per cent of the annual healthcare budget.
The country is short of 30,000 trained psychiatrists for an estimated four crore people suffering from mental illness. And there aren't enough paramedics; there is just one nurse for every 1,000 patients.
Besides the lack of skilled professionals, the problem is of unequal distribution of mental health experts. So out of the 4,000 psychiatrists most of these experts are concentrated in the four-five metros.
Mumbai has 300 trained psychiatrists and while that also isn't enough for the city of 1.5 crore, it certainly leaves rural India far behind.
The reason for there not being enough trained psychiatrists is that only a few medical colleges offer psychiatry as a specialised course and these take in on average some 30 students a batch.
Another reason for lack of psychiatrists is 'brain drain'. 60 per cent of students who graduate with an MD in psychiatry head for US or UK to work.
"Stigma is attached with psychiatry both in people and medical fraternity . But people don't want to take up the course," says a doctor with AIIM, Dr Rajesh Sagar.
The government has set up the National Mental Health Programme; but clearly the funds allocated by it are certainly not enough.
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