From my past few posts, you may be aware by now of my obsession with the TEDxtalks. :D There is so much that people are doing in the world for other people that it has started to dawn upon me about my responsibilities towards the world and our fellow beings. I haven't really done much for the people so here's my chance to at least popularise the ones who have so that their initiative becomes a success.
My last TEDxTalks were concerned with harnessing passive human energy and easy accessibility of water in desert rural areas. Both of these were brought about by TEDxgateway event which was held in Mumbai in December 2012 partnered by the Franklin Templeton Investments. This post will deal about mental health issues.
The problem:
According to Vikram Patel, the co-founder of Sangath, a local NGO dedicated to mental health and family well being about 50 million people in India suffer from a mental or neurological illness. As we know in America, there are a lot of psychiatrists for the increasing amount of depression and anxiety cases due to the stressful lifestyle of people. In India, if we have started living a similar lifestyle but if follow the same model, we would need 1.5 lakh psychiatrists for a population of 1.2 billion. However, the actual number available are 3500 which is pretty miniscule.
The problem is we do not have so many psychiatrists and as a matter of fact, not everybody in India can afford a psychiatrist! The common people who are striving to make both ends meet with rise in prices of essential commodities everyday, cannot afford to get treated for problems like depression or anxiety by paying huge fee to the psychiatrists.
The solution:
So Vikram Patel has started a new concept - task-sharing. So what if we cannot afford the expensive psychiatrists? He has started training the people in the rural areas itself - one among their own- to treat mental illness, to counsel people. He started this exercise with his NGO as a randomized controlled trial, The MANAS trial, in which one group is given the aid and the other isn't.
They observed 70% recovery rate in aided people as opposed to 50% in the control group. The suicidal behaviour reduced from 20% to 9% which is more than 50% reduction. Then they conducted similar trials on people with dementia and other neurological disorders. He has given the concept of SUNDAR for such task sharing activities:
Simplify the message
UNpack the treatment (break down in their terms)
Deliver where they are
Affordable and available human resources
Reallocation of specialists to train and supervise
I know that most of us believe that the treatment of "dangerous" medical diseases is more important and these mental disorders can be dealt later on. But trust me, they are as dangerous and life-taking as the other medical problems. A lot of people are suffering from depression and stressful life but either they are unaware as of whom to approach or too shy to actually discuss their problems with anyone. We should take upon ourselves this task of helping as much people as we know. This year the Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxgateway event in December 2012 which showcased all these initiatives with people. I just feel sad that I couldn't be a part of it but we must definitely be a part of the initiatives in even as little way as is possible for us.
Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012. (video)
It's my turn to do my bit for the humanity. :)
This post is a part of The Idea Caravan contest organised by Franklin Templeton Investments and IndiBlogger.
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