Ludhiana, April 6
All over the world, health of not only the individual but the entire society is of prime importance as the development of any nation depends on its healthy work force. Keeping this in view, the UNO has declared April 7 as World Health Day and have made ‘mental health’ the main focus this year. This has been necessitated as according to WHO the major illness all around is cardio-vascular followed by mental illnesses in all the countries. The motto given is ‘stop exclusion-dare to care.’

The mental illnesses listed by WHO are, schizophrenia, depression, mental retardation, epilepsy, and dementia. According to Dr R.L. Narang, Professor and Head, Department of Psychitary, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Between ten and twenty per cent of people suffer from mental disorders. Ten years ago people tended to brush under the carpet any mental disorders as society attached a great deal of stigma to mental illness. But now the attitude of the people is changing and they are seeking treatment for mental ailments.

Dr B.P. Mishra, Reader & Incharge, Clinical Psychology Section in DMC&H, says: “These days people are suffering from depression which is caused due to stress and excessive rat race. Depression can be either due to genetic causes or created by stress-related disorders. If the treatment starts early, the patient can lead a normal life. People think that such patients are administered drugs which they will get addicted to, but that is a fallacy.”

Ludhiana Tribune spoke to a few people to find out the awareness of society about the mental illnesses. Mrs Madhu Malhotra, who runs a ‘speech and hearing’ clinic for hearing impaired children, says that people are becoming aware of these problems. She says: “Since all the children are not of same I.Q. level, the teachers should act as counsellors for these students or else, these children become depressed. Uneducated people still are hesitant to recognise these problems and would rather go to ‘pirs’ and ‘holy men.’ A sustained campaign should be undertaken by doctors, media to make the people aware of the causes of depression and how to over come them so that people can become socially useful work force.”

The Mayor of the city, Mr Apinder Singh, was of the view that people take physical diseases more seriously than mental diseases. He said: “From the last decade atleast people are taking depression seriously and consulting psychiatrists. The doctors should also refer the mentally ill patients to psychiatrists and psychologists and should hold seminars to educate people about mental illnesses.”

Dr Lily Grewal said: “The problem of depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia starts right from childhood. But the parents overlook them as they are not life threatening diseases. Sometimes they think marriage will solve such problems but they don’t. The marriages break up. The television instead of airing cricket should show more programmes related to health and diseases.” Dr Sangeeta of Civil Hospital says: “Nowadays people have begun to recognise mental diseases and are going for treatment. Education level is going up and hence the awareness. Yet the magnitude is much more compared to the medical facilities available. For a population of 25 lakhs, there are not more than two dozen trained doctors.”

Dr Parvinder Pal Singh says that the upper and middle class people are becoming aware of the gravity of mental illnesses and are getting the patients treated. But the uneducated people do not take these problems seriously and many a percentage of people that could have led normal lives had they got timely treatment are doomed to live lives that are not normal.”

Dr Ajit Singh Dua, retired Joint Director, Services, Punjab said, “actually due to a lot of stress and strain, people are becoming mentally ill. More and more people are recognising this and are getting the patients treated although earlier going to a psychiatrist was regarded as a taboo. But there is an acute shortage of trained doctors”.