DH Bengaluru 2040 Summit | Use of AI in mental health sphere concerning, but good tech in healthcare is need of the hour, says panel

Health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao noted that the challenges technology posed on young people is concerning while adding that the use of good tech is important to sustain mental health discourse.

Bengaluru: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the mental health sphere is a ubiquitous problem. However, despite the concerns technology has thrown at us, adopting tech in mental healthcare is a welcome move, said Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao.

He was speaking at a panel titled 'Mental Wellness for a future-ready metro' at the fourth edition of DH Bengaluru 2040 summit.

"Our dependence on technology for healthcare has become so prominent that after each consultation with the doctor, we cross check our doubts with Dr Google. More and more young people are exposed to the world quite earlier than they used to a decade ago. There is an information overload and our self-image is often influenced by what we portray on the social media," he said.

He noted that the challenges technology posed on young people is concerning while adding that the use of good tech is important to sustain mental health discourse.

Dr Nirmala Srinivasan, Founder of Families Allianceon Mental Illness said that using mental health with mental illness is a serious problem. Speaking about community involvement in healthcare in the mental health sphere, she said that community in an increasingly urban set-up like Bengaluru is a "myth".

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"Community involvement in mental health is a myth. Mental health care must be family-centric. Each family is unique," she said.

Speaking about stress, she said that high stress is a high risk factor in disrupting mental health, but is not a cause of mental illness.

Underscoring the importance of having psychiatric emergency units, she said that Bengaluru needs systemic change. "We need more ambulances to shift mentally ill persons," she said.

"As it is, mental illness is a stigma and not having psychiatric emergency measures is adding more fuel to the fire," she said.

Dr Tristha Ramamurthy, Vice President of CMR group of institutions, spoke about parent education programmes in bridging the generation gap. "Never before have I heard about a six year old child saying she is going through stress," she said, adding that educational institutions need more trained counsellors to address mental health problems.

Dr H S Aditya, Medical Director at the Manasa Neuropsychiatric Hospital, spoke about how words like stress, anxiety had entered general usage but more progress is required in mental health discourse today.

He said that more research and innovation is required in traning Language Learning Models (LLMs) for the conditions of tomorrow.