The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Stay put in India, mental health professionals told

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Saturday, Feb 23, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Stay put in India, mental health professionals told

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director-General Samir K. Brahmachari on Friday made a fervent appeal to the young postgraduates in mental and neurosciences from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) not to migrate to foreign countries, but to stay put in India.

“You are a privileged lot. Please stay in India. The country, especially the poor people, need you badly,” the Minister said while addressing the 12th convocation of the NIMHANS here.

He pointed out that the discipline of mental health and neurological sciences faced the toughest challenge of human resources shortage. The shortage level was around 80 per cent for doctors, psychiatric nurses and psychologists.

There were many districts which did not even have a mental health professional. There was an urban-rural divide in terms of quality of mental healthcare in the country, he said.

The country had about 3,300 qualified psychiatrists of whom nearly 3,000 had settled in the four metros, he said.

The Union Government was planning to train general doctors (with a mere MBBS qualification) to handle simple mental health disorders to cope with the shortage of mental health specialists, he said.

The Minister expressed concern over increasing addiction to tobacco, alcohol, junk food and computer games among youngsters and observed that mental health professionals could tackle this problem.

Dr. Samir observed that a lot of Indian doctors, who had settled abroad, were now returning to India.

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