Factual Reasons to Mandate Mental Health Counsellors in Every Indian School

According to an estimate by the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental illness makes about 15% of the total disease conditions around the world. Also, in 2011, there were 0·301 psychiatrists and 0·047 psychologists for every 100,000 patients suffering from a mental health disorder in India!

That's disturbing, right? Wait till you read more!

According to a report by The Lancent:

(one of the world's oldest and best-known general medical journals)

• China and India are home to more than a third of people with mental illness, but only a tiny fraction of them receive medical help,
• There are more people in the world’s two most populous nations coping with mental, neurological and substance use problems than in all high-income countries combined,
• That burden will become much heavier in coming decades, especially in India, where it is projected to increase by a quarter by 2025

The stigma associated with mental health problems in the two countries also impacts on employment opportunities and therefore the social economic status of families, compounding social inequalities for those with mental health and substance use disorders.

Some red flags with our current policies:

• Less than one per cent of national healthcare budgets in India is allocated to mental health care
• Estimates suggest that by 2025, 38.1m years of healthy lives in India will be lost mental health diseases
• From 2015 to 2025, it is estimated that the number of healthy years lost due to dementia will increase by 82% in India 

(Source)

Channelising the National Outrage Systematically:

When Sushant Singh Rajput's death caused a whirlwind of national outrage over the lack of addressal mechanism for mental health in India, I dug up the following data:

In 2008, CBSE had circulated a guideline amongst every affiliated school's Head of Institute to hire a mental health counsellor within their premises (here's the link from their official website: 2008 Guideline)

This move was accelerated based on a suggestion by the Raghavan Committee's Report constituted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (in SLP No. 24295 of 2006) to put an end to bullying and its consequences on young children.

In 2015, there was yet another guideline for the same purpose. However, due to extreme administrative negligence, this was not given enough limelight by the schools.

In light of the outrage over mental health being considered a taboo by majority of the nation even today, I am requesting the government to intervene immediately and make this guideline mandatory.

It is NOT plausible for India to ignore the mental health crisis looming on our head anymore

There have been enough debates about what causes mental illnesses amongst humans. Science has given us enough research to conclude that a mental illness is as grave as a physical injury. Then why do we not have a basic mental healthcare infrastructure in place already?

Some important points to note:

• Bullying and harassment are not the only leading causes of stress, anxiety and mental health issues amongst youngsters.
• In case of a crisis, students and adults are not equipped with a proper knowledge as to how and whom to approach for resolving the crisis.
• Lack of awareness regarding the difference between a counsellor, psychologist and psychiatrist leads to more problems because of the commercialisation of the healthcare industry.

Mental Illness is as grave as a physical injury:

Here's how to become an even better nation by allowing our future generations to grow in a healthy environment by educating them about mental health from childhood onwards. We need to borrow the school counsellor culture from the west, immediately!

My mother has been a government teacher for 25 years now. She tells me, government institutions do not have any posts/vacancies for psychologists/counsellors. Understandable. The government has numerous responsibilities with India being a huge nation.

Although private schools can incorporate the model in their institutions, if mandated by the government. They can even afford that!

If you wish that your private school had had a mental health counsellor, you can sign this petition: Every Private School Shall Employ A Competent Mental Health Counsellor, Right Away

Collectively, we MUST accept that a counsellor in every institution is the need of the hour. The more we delay this, the more broken generations we are raising up.

It’s a cycle. It won’t stop. Mental health professionals exist for a reason, after all. Save your future generations and sign this petition now.

Have any suggestions? Email me on thatcandorgirl@gmail.com or leave a comment below. I'll get back to you about it!