The Economic Survey 2023-24 highlights mental health as crucial for individual and national development, marking its first extensive inclusion in policy recommendations.
What is Mental Health?
- Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.
Status of Mental Healthcare in India
- About: The prevalence of mental disorders among children aged 13-17 was 7.3% for both genders. Additionally, 26.8% of girls were married below the legal age, and 8% of girls aged 15-19 were either mothers or pregnant.
- Gender Issues in Adolescents: The survey also revealed that 37% of women aged 15-24 have faced physical, sexual, or emotional violence from their husbands, which includes some girls of school age.
- Rising Student suicides: Since 2011, student suicides have risen from 7,696 in 2011 to 13,089 in 2021. Among those under 18, 1,408 cases cited illness as the reason for suicide, with 58% related to mental health issues. Additionally, 1,495 cases were attributed to ‘love affairs’ and 864 to ‘failure in exams.’
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Issues with Mental Health
- Stigma: Mental health patients frequently avoid seeking help due to widespread stigma, leading to significant psychological isolation.
- Treatment Discontinuation: Extended treatment, including counseling, can last over a year and be prohibitively expensive, causing patients to discontinue care.
- Limited Hospital Beds: India has only 1.43 mental health hospital beds per 100,000 people, far below the median of seven in low-income countries and 50 in high-income countries.
- Insufficient Psychologists: As of 2017, India has only 0.15 psychologists per 100,000 people, while the need is for three psychiatrists per 100,000.
- Inadequate Training for Doctors: Doctor training does not adequately address the broad spectrum of mental illnesses requiring diagnosis and treatment.
- Resource Gaps in PHCs: Medication supply at Primary Health Care (PHC) centers is often irregular and insufficient for the range of mental health conditions.
Key Findings of the Economic Survey 2023-24
- Economic Impact: The Survey mentions that at an aggregate economic level, mental health disorders are associated with significant productivity losses due to absenteeism, decreased productivity, disability, and increased healthcare costs.
- Poverty and Mental Health Risk: There is also evidence of poverty exacerbating the risk of mental health due to stressful living conditions, financial instability, and lack of opportunities for upward mobility, which contribute to heightened psychological distress.
- Mental Health Data: The Survey states that, according to the National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) 2015-16, 10.6% adults in India suffered from mental disorders, while the treatment gap for mental disorders ranged between 70% and 92% for different disorders.
- Urban vs. Rural Mental Health Rates: Further, the prevalence of mental morbidity was higher in urban metropolitan regions (13.5%) compared with rural areas (6.9%) and urban non-metro areas (4.3%).
- Adolescent Mental Health Trends: The Economic Survey highlights an increasing prevalence of poor mental health among adolescents exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 11% of students reported as feeling anxious, 14% feeling extreme emotion, and 43% experiencing mood swings.
- Recommendations: Recognising mental health as a fundamental aspect of overall well-being, the Survey has recommended proper implementation of healthcare programmes to accelerate improvements made in mental healthcare on the ground, and address gaps in existing programmes to maximise their effectiveness.
- Government Mental Health Initiatives: It has listed out key initiatives and policies taken by the government, including the National Mental Health Programme, National Tele Mental Health Programme, increasing mental health personnel, and the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram’s adolescent-friendly health clinics (AFHCs) and peer education programmes.
- Other initiatives include the Central government’s efforts to raise the number of psychiatrists from 0.75 per lakh population in 2021 to the World Health Organization’s norm of three psychiatrists per lakh population.
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July 23, 2024