According to a recent study conducted by Ohio State University in the United States and the Indian Institute of Technology (Jodhpur), the self-reporting rate of mental illness in India is less than one per cent and the private sector is a major source of mental health services in India.
The study has been published in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems and co-authored by Dr Alok Ranjan, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Arts (SoLA), IIT Jodhpur, and Dr. Jewel Crasta, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
The results showed that there was a markedly low percentage of self-reporting for mental health issues. Based on data from the 75th Round National Sample Survey (2017–18), the study was completely reliant on self-reporting by individuals. Data was collected from 5,55,115 individuals (3,25,232 rural and 2,29,232 urban) from randomly chosen 8,077 villages and 6,181 urban regions, which included 374 hospitalisation cases and 283 outpatient cases related to mental health disorders in India.
One major obstacle to disclosing mental health disorders in society is stigma. Since mental health is still stigmatised in modern society, reporting mental health problems is frowned upon even now. People who are afraid of being judged by others frequently decide not to seek help. De-stigmatising mental health is essential to create a culture that accepts and normalises seeking assistance.
The study was conducted based on the logistic regression models and shows that individuals with higher incomes were 1.73 times more inclined to report health problems compared to those with lower incomes. It also found that in India, the self-reported prevalence of mental illness is significantly lower than the actual burden of the illness. This discrepancy points to a serious deficiency in the recognition and treatment of mental health concerns.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) 2017 National Mental Health Survey, there were over 197.3 million mental health disorders in India.
The study identified several major difficulties surrounding mental health, including socioeconomic inequities, the dominance of the private sector, restricted health insurance coverage, and high out-of-pocket expenses. The private sector provides 66.1 per cent of outpatient care and 59.2 per cent of in-patient care, emerging as a significant source of mental health services.
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