Chennai: Though numerous advances in mental health care are aiding the affected people to lead a normal life, most of mental retardation remains a lifelong concern with no defined cure.
Though mental retardation is not curable, inclusion in social development programmes, early detection, preventive efforts and behavioural modifications can help people with intellectual disability live a better life.
Mental retardation is a major reason for mortality and disability across the country, accounting for around 16.6 per cent of the total burden of the disease due to health conditions in India. Depression will be the second highest cause of disease burden in India by 2030, said a WHO report.
“However, behavioural modifications such as a restructuring of the environment, rewarding desirable behaviour, differential reinforcement for alternative behaviour can help the people with intellectual disabilities develop self-care attitude and ease their life. Though mental retardation cannot be cured, training of personal skills such as involving children in daily activities and structuring their daily schedules can help the mentally retarded (MR) people to lead a normal life”, said Dr Vivian Kapil, psychiatrist, SIMS Hospital.
Some of the mental retardation in newborn children can be prevented if it is caused due to viral infections passed on by the mother to the child. “The regular anti-viral check-up for pregnant women is very necessary, along with regular consumption of prescribed supplements such as iron and folic acid tablets.
This can be a preventable factor against mental disabilities in infants”, said Dr S Selvi, gynaecologist, Kasturba Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Another concern is of ignorance of people about the delay in growth of the children, which gives an indication that there's a developmental delay in the child and medical help should be taken earlier.
“Early identification and intervention can help the child and family cope with these disabilities to an extent even though there might not be a cure for it. Mental health treatments remain inaccessible to more than 70 per cent of mentally retarded people. Some people have a misconception that all these disabilities might be cured as the child grows up and hence they don't seek medical help”, said Dr Jessie Raju, a psychologist.
