Hyderabad: A recent report of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) on suicides, wherein 543 students and 9,980 overall died by suicide in the state in 2022, has, again, shone the spotlight on the precarious nature of student life and a need to make accessible psychiatric help to prevent such incidents.
The need for psychiatric care was also mentioned as the need of the hour by the Indian Psychiatric Society in its ninth mid-term conference on Monday, held on the theme ‘Establishing Psychiatric Services’. The meeting was initiated by the Telangana State Branch and Department of Psychiatry, Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Hyderabad.
An expert at the conference said: “With the help of Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, psychiatrists posted in secondary-care hospitals, this goal can be accomplished. We have made this service mandatory in medical colleges as of late, we are seeing several students because of various pressures committing suicide.”
Participants in the conference said that the Mental Health Act mandates scientific implementation of psychiatric care, which was not the norm earlier.
“Today, we have a specific body to implement the Act. There are many people who are exploiting this particular field because there is a need of services. These services can’t be given in regular hospitals even in the private sector, so obviously rehabilitation centres are mushrooming everywhere, and they are exploiting patients,” an expert said.
Delivering the inaugural address at the conference, Dr Ramesh Reddy said: “All eminent professionals in this field and are aware of the limitations and the kind of psychiatry services available in our country. Psychiatry was confined to medical colleges and there too, it was not in a full-fledged manner, just for the sake of MCI or NMC we used to have one department.”
“But that’s not the case today. With the pressure from the Government of India, the legal forums, including the Supreme Court, are insisting on implementing psychiatric services in various parts of the country, especially in institutions. Therefore, psychiatry can longer be ignored,” he said.
While the taboo surrounding psychiatric care has lessened to an extent, many non-experts are exploiting the space by setting up counselling centres or rehabilitation centres that have had adverse effects on care-seekers.
Dr Uma Shankar, CEO of the body, said, “Now, this body has started inspecting institutions. Some rehabilitation centres have gone to the extent of doing what is depicted in movies. These rehabilitation centres are run in a pathetic manner. With no regulatory mechanism, they are admitting patients just for the sake of money and just keep them at a designated place, because families want it and are ready to pay any amount of money.”
“There is a need for medical institutions, especially medical colleges, to concentrate on improving psychiatric services. I can proudly say we are almost having a medical college in each district and each of these colleges have a psychiatric department,” Dr Shankar said.
