Pallavi Sareen
Jammu, Oct 10: A journalist working with Scroll, Karnika Kohli took to twitter on 21st July to proclaim that she had spent 1.61 lakh just to take care of her mental health.
“Taking care of your mental health is really important. And really expensive. Why? Because healthcare in India sucks,” she tweeted.
But her story is not the only one. If a journalist working in a media organisation in Delhi is finding it hard to take care of her mental health because of the expenses it incurs, where will a lower-middle-class individual go looking for help?
The Expense
The stigma associated with Mental health has gotten diluted over the years and now you do find people suggesting a person suffering from anxiety or depression to see a psychiatrist or a therapist. But the question remains, how will a person battling mental health be able to pay Rs 1000-3000 for a single counselling session. Therapy for mental illnesses require at least 20-30 sessions. That is why, individuals are looking for cost-free Google tips and tricks for solutions to their anxiety and depression. What exactly could go wrong there? Only so much.
Inaccessibility
Even if one does manage to get the amount, it is easier to find psychiatrists and counsellors in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Bombay as compared to other states like Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Tripura etc. The logistics of finding a psychiatrist and travelling long distances for the counselling sessions further reduce the possibility of a person suffering from mental illness seeking professional help.
Medical Insurance ignores Mental Health coverage
In 2017, the Mental Healthcare Act stated that every insurer will have to make a provision for medical insurance to cover the treatment of mental illness, similar to the available treatment of physical illness. In 2018, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) made it mandatory for insurance companies to include the treatment of mental illness in their offerings. But the reality remains that many health insurance policies do not cover mental illnesses. The situation is such that after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, Supreme Court issued the notices and sought affidavits from the government and the insurance regulatory authority explaining why they had failed to give effect to a statutory provision which mandates all insurance companies to provide insurance cover to mental illness just like any other physical illness.
Lack of Doctors
Dr Om Prakash highlighted why the state of mental healthcare in India is in shambles in a conversation with BBC. He talked about the absence of psychiatrists and psychologists from government hospitals and blamed it upon the non-seriousness of both state and central government’s apathy towards mental illnesses. The doctors appointed in government hospitals for mental healthcare are often offered contractual jobs which has low pay and facilities and thus, the doctors prefer working with private healthcare institutions. Those institutions charge high costs for treatment of mental illnesses. The number of psychiatrists available per lakh people in India was less than 1 in 2014-16.
Some relief through telemedicine
There are some psychiatrists and psychologists who started offering free or inexpensive services during the lockdown. Superannuated Psychologists Society of India (SPSI), a body of veterans in the field of practising psychology, has come forward to provide tele-counselling services to the people suffering from issues arising out of COVID-19, reported The Hindu. But that is not a long-term solution.
Even developed nations like United States of America are undergoing the same problem i.e ensuring mental health care for its citizens at affordable prices.
