When someone has a fever/flu that persists they usually go to a
doctor for the treatment. Similarly, when someone suffers a severe injury or
has a heart attack, they will immediately rush to the hospital. Unfortunately, when
someone is suffering from a mental illness, from depression to schizophrenia,
they will often hide it or seek treatment from ‘peer baba’.
Mental diseases is not treated the same as other
physiological illnesses, and coupled with the increasing stress of daily live including inflation, unemployment, etc, there is an increasing impact on the mental well being of
Pakistanis. Very often increased stress results in psychosomatic complaints
that appear physical e.g., pain in arms and chest, asthma, fainting, but
are actually a result of psychological reasons. All these mental illnesses,
like other physiological sickness, can be treated if professional help is taken
for treatment. Considerable advances have been made in modern medicine to treat
everything from depression to panic attacks.
A WHO report indicates that according to epidemiological
studies carried out in Pakistan, between 10-16% of the population suffers from
moderate psychiatric illnesses, in addition to over 1% suffering from severe
mental illnesses. Another WHO report claims that between 46-66% of women i.e.
almost half of all women in Pakistan, and 15-25% of men suffer from anxiety and
depression. In rural areas over 60% women were affected compared to 25-30%
women in urban counters. Relatively mind mental illness like depression,
although they can often lead to a much lower quality of life or even suicide,
can often lead to moderate to severe mental illness. Professional treatment
needs to be sought early in the illness to improve the prognosis of the
disease.
At the policy front, the National Mental Health Program was
formulated in 1986 and is part of the general health policy of the country. It
involves incorporating mental health in primary health care, removing stigma
which is attached with mental diseases, caring for mental health and substance
abuse in the country. There has been limited progress on these excellent
policies. A new Mental Health Ordinance emphasizes the promotion of mental
health and prevention and cure of mental illnesses. The ordinance protects the
rights of the mentally ill and promotes awareness and mental health literacy.
Although the ordinance was legislated, it has not been meticulously
implemented. Given that there are only 4 mental hospitals and less than 800
psychiatrists and psychologists combined in a country of 175 million (about 1
per 250,000 persons), it is not difficult to understand the challenges that lie
ahead.
Mental health is a much neglected area of public health in
Pakistan, with a severe shortage of service facilities sectors. While the
systematic issues that plague health services in Pakistan are shared by all
health areas, mental health services are even worse than for other health
issues because of the deep stigma and discrimination that mental health patient
face. This not only leads to mental health patients often being isolated from
society and sometimes from their families, but also causes people who have
moderate or mild mental illnesses not to accept or seek treatment until their
condition gets exacerbated. Even when treatment is sought, it is often through
traditional healers, and the limited demand of professional mental health
services has also resulted in very limited service availability in the private sector.
Unfortunately, many of us believe that living with stress,
anxiety, depression, panic attacks, compulsive behaviours, psychosomatic pains
and illnesses or a variety of other symptoms are simply what life is all about.
These complaints are no different from fevers, broken bones, high blood
pressure or other problems that life sometimes throws at us but we do seek
treatment for these. We do not hide these symptoms, or live in shame, or
pretend there is no problem.
