Lok Sabha passes the Mental Healthcare Bill
Lok Sabha has passed the Mental Healthcare Bill. The Bill
empowers the individual with legal rights to demand treatment for mental
illness from the State. It also decriminalises suicide and recognises
caretakers. It curtails and punishes inhuman treatment or imprisonment of PMI.
During the debate on the Mental Healthcare Bill, AITC MP from
Bardhaman-Durgapur, WB, Sanghamitra Mamtaz spoke at length about the Bill and
said "Medical education is sadly lacking in psychological arm."
Another MP gave out a number of issues that the Bill needs to
address or add.
- Check
up by psychiatists for each child at school level needs to be made compulsory
and a mental health card to be maintained. This will help detect mental health
status of children so timely medical help can be given.
- Parents of child and relatives need to be given training.
- Dementia must be included in Bill while framing rules.
- An authority of mental health must oversee treatment and
follow guidelines. Said Authority must be accountable to the ministry.
- One mental hospital in each state should be identified by
the govt and attached to AIIMS for counselling and control.
Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) said that number of mental healthcare
nurses and physiotherapists are abysmally low. India spends 0.06% of budget in
mental healthcare. Even Bangladesh spends more, he says. Idris Ali, Trinamool,
says over 6 crore people in the nation are suffering from depression and mental
anxiety. This is a spike of 5 per cent from last year. Konda Vishveshwara Reddy
(TRS) says mental disorder and behavioural disroders should be codified to
avoid misuse. Dr. Gavit (BJP) said that Paramedical staff has no designated
council or body which regulates and governs them. There could be legal issues
arising.
Salient features of the Bill are: (1) Suicide is
decriminalised. (2) Electro-convulsive therapy will be conducted only under
anaesthesia. (3) A person with mental-illness has right to lead the life with
dignity. (4) Chaining, use of force, discrimination are considered illegal. (5)
A person with mental illness can make an advance directive that states how
he/she wants to be treated.
Heena Gavit said that there are only about 4000 psychiatrists
in this country, and pointed out the paucity of human resource in the field.
Some people who suffer from mental health problems say that
the attitude of the society & the doctors have been very cruel, be it in
areas of housing, accomodation, travelling, relationships, employment, higher
education, occupation therapy, economic issues, legal access, healthcare access,
social support, adverse impact on family, long term stay in rehabilitation
center, adverse impact on body, drug side effects, the experience has been
frightening. These are the stressors cited. So the MHbill should address these
problems. The mere right to select the mode of treatment does not sound
practical since ignorance about psychiatry is widely prevalent in our society
including psychiatrists / psychologists. This specialty is still lagging far
behind other specialties. Its neural model & Rx are considered invalid
& unscientific. So the public health service towards psychiatry is of
utmost importance. The MH patients should not be stigmatized or victimized.
With regards to mental health bill, it’s not enough to have
the right to be treated but after and while on treatment, how is he going to be
treated by the law, the banking sector, the society as a whole and the job
industry. If the patient has to live with dignity then he should get all the
benefits that a physically disabled is getting and all those underprivileged
are getting. This is important because mental health problem is a disability
and those suffering from it constitute a minority. They are the last minority. You
cannot expect them to compete with the mentally fit citizens and survive in our
overpopulated country. They should be given reservations, computers and all
other equipments free which other healthy people are getting for free.
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