Aid For Mental Ailments

The moment a baby comes out of mother’s womb, the new-born’s struggle for life begins. The infant passes through different stages of life becoming kid, youth and eventually a senior citizen. Every individual nurtures a dream of healthy, happy and affluent life. Humans often take precaution to avoid danger that causes physical harm to them. It is a desire of everyone to live a long life. This is fundamental biological or social nature of human beings but this perception falls through as they do not hesitate to kill themselves out of depression or impulsive shock. It is bewildering why the people resort to such a move. The friends or relatives of such persons do not have clues behind his/her desperate step. Serious mental illness is attributed for a move to kill the self.  Severe depression erodes a person’s confidence and triggers despair and high level of emotional distress. A person with depression tend to lose hope and finds living burdensome and troublesome.  

Economic crisis, poverty, breakdown of family, betrayal in love relation and troubled married life, war and conflict are some factors, which cause mental trauma and self-defeatist emotion to the persons, driving them to kill themselves. During the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis, many Nepali chose to finish themselves. In Nepal, one out of   10  people is said to suffer from some kind of mental health problems and around 19 people on average commit suicide daily. This dreadful reality calls for giving immediate attention to the mental health of people. Given the gravity of issue, Nepal government has taken various measures to address it. The other day, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda said that the government was working to expand mental health services across the country by keeping them under primary healthcare and generate required number of human resources on mental health. 

As the prevention is better than cure, the Ministry of Health and Population set up helpline number 1166 at Patan's Mental Hospital in 2021 to provide counselling to the people with suicidal thoughts.  The Ministry has assigned five counsellors, who operate the helpline in turns and respond to the callers. The concerned authorities have said that the hotline has been highly helpful in saving many lives. Of total of 16,551 calls it received till September 2023, around 2,395 callers asked for counselling related to different mental health issues and 1,488 sought support to overcome their suicidal thoughts. Around 2,750 people made silent calls and hesitated to come forth owing to fear. It received 17 crisis calls in which individuals approach the helpline after suicidal attempts.  The rest were wrong numbers, queries, bluffs and abuse.  The counsellors urge the support seekers to visit the nearby health centres with mental health facility if needed and talked to their family members and friends. 

As around 80 per cent of the people who need mental health care do not have access to it, the helpline has come in handy to prevent the desperate moves by openly sharing the problems and trauma of the sufferers. The Ministry has also establish a National Resource Centre at the Mental Hospital in the collaboration with the World Health Organisation to lead a multi-sectoral response for the purpose. This year the World Mental Day is being marked with the theme 'Our minds, our rights'. The concerned stakeholders should focus on spreading awareness about such tendencies in schools and communities while effectively enforcing the plans and policy to provide quality mental health services to the needy.