<p>Karnataka State Mental Health Task Force will recommend to the State government to start schools for the residential care of children suffering from mental disorders in each district, Dr K A Ashok Pai, Chairman of the Task Force, said here on Saturday.<br /><br />The school with approximately 50 students, will work for the mental rehabilitation of these children, he said.</p>.<p><br />Apart from it, residential care and rehabilitation centres for chronically ill mentally disabled patients in each district has also been proposed, he said.<br /><br />Speaking at a press meet, he said as per World Health Organisation, as many as 14 per cent of the population require counselling, or some form of treatment for mental health conditions. <br /><br />Even though a large chunk of the population faced these problems, awareness regarding mental health was low in the region. Awareness would play a key role in preventing the cases of suicide, which has increased in the past few years, he said. <br /><br />Noting that depression was one of the major reasons that pushed people towards suicide, he said proper counselling for persons suffering from depression would help reduce such cases. “As a measure, proposals have been made for an anti-suicide force and helpline for people suffering from depression,” he said.<br /><br />As per universal guidelines for mental health services, for every one lakh population there was requirement of one psychiatrist, one psychologist, and two other personnel, with specialisation in mental health. <br /><br />However, in India, there were only 4,000 psychiatrists, 2,000 psychologists and 2,000 workers with expertise in mental health, which was much less than the requirement, he said.<br /><br />“While a total of 40 psychiatrists are trained in the State every year, more than 50 per cent of them migrate to foreign countries for practice. Therefore, there is a need to constitute a mental health task force, to address the problems among the population in the State,” he said.<br /></p>
<p>Karnataka State Mental Health Task Force will recommend to the State government to start schools for the residential care of children suffering from mental disorders in each district, Dr K A Ashok Pai, Chairman of the Task Force, said here on Saturday.<br /><br />The school with approximately 50 students, will work for the mental rehabilitation of these children, he said.</p>.<p><br />Apart from it, residential care and rehabilitation centres for chronically ill mentally disabled patients in each district has also been proposed, he said.<br /><br />Speaking at a press meet, he said as per World Health Organisation, as many as 14 per cent of the population require counselling, or some form of treatment for mental health conditions. <br /><br />Even though a large chunk of the population faced these problems, awareness regarding mental health was low in the region. Awareness would play a key role in preventing the cases of suicide, which has increased in the past few years, he said. <br /><br />Noting that depression was one of the major reasons that pushed people towards suicide, he said proper counselling for persons suffering from depression would help reduce such cases. “As a measure, proposals have been made for an anti-suicide force and helpline for people suffering from depression,” he said.<br /><br />As per universal guidelines for mental health services, for every one lakh population there was requirement of one psychiatrist, one psychologist, and two other personnel, with specialisation in mental health. <br /><br />However, in India, there were only 4,000 psychiatrists, 2,000 psychologists and 2,000 workers with expertise in mental health, which was much less than the requirement, he said.<br /><br />“While a total of 40 psychiatrists are trained in the State every year, more than 50 per cent of them migrate to foreign countries for practice. Therefore, there is a need to constitute a mental health task force, to address the problems among the population in the State,” he said.<br /></p>
