Quality Vs. Quantity ?

The last post by SoaringHeights reminded me of how frail our mental health system is, not only in terms of the type of rehabilitation used, but also in the lack of any evidence of mental health system.

Over the years I've been blogging on mental health, I've come across many individuals who seek help (or sometimes I force them to). A couple of years back, I had a certain individual contact me with his suicidal feelings. I talked him into visiting a psychiatrist. There was none available near the place he stayed, and no helping hand to take him there. His self-evident psychosis made it all the more difficult for me to persuade him. We exchanged quite a few mails on this issue. We talked about other issues as well, about his ongoing studies. I sent him a couple of mails later, with no reply...

Another individual, who just tends to leave abusive messages on every blog I ever wrote on or still write, seriously needs psychiatric help for his, again, self-evident psychosis. I moderate all posts to maintain a healthy blog for all. I have made the sincerest efforts to push him for help. Not knowing his whereabouts, there's not much I can do. Against all my hopes, I do hope he doesn't end up stopping sending these comments...

With less than 4,000 mental health workers in India, mainly concentrated in the 5 metros, there's no scope for treatment for those just 100kms (<50 miles) outside these metros. The system in India, as I mentioned earlier, is much better in terms of quality but highly lacks in its quantity. And economics has a huge role to play in this. It becomes increasingly difficult for people outside the above-mentioned areas to pay for the consultation fee, leave alone the medication!