Health Special Article : Families find few avenues for care and treatment of the mentally ill - Home - livemint.com

Yet, with only 37 government institutions to
care for the mentally ill in a nation of more
than one billion people, there are limited long-term resources for families struggling to look after a relative who needs psychiatric
treatment. In northern India, there isn’t a
single government-run rehabilitation centre
where people with incurable mental ailments
can be admitted.

“For 18 years, I have cared for my son at
home because I do not have a choice,” said
Bhowmik. “It is not enough to give medicine
to patients suffering from schizophrenia. They require special care, which we cannot give at home, but I do not have the money to
institutionalize him in a private facility. I
don’t like to think about what will happen to him after I am gone.”

In the 1980s, the World Health Organization
released the startling findings of a two-part
study on mental illness: Patients suffering
from schizophrenia in developing countries such as India, Nigeria and Colombia had better long-term outcomes than those in developed
countries, which included Denmark, the US and Canada.

The culmination of decades of research, the
study examined long-term treatment of more
than 1,000 schizophrenic patients across 16
countries, concluding the greater levels of
acceptance, stronger social ties, and greater
family involvement more common in developing companies appeared to be “key positivefactors” linked to patient recovery.
While the study’s findings have been
criticized on the grounds that it may have
ignored patients locked away by families
concerned about the social stigma associated
with mental illness, it contained important
insights into its treatment.

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Families find few avenues for care and treatment of the mentally ill - Home - livemint.com