State only mental hospital situated at Aradura Hills in Kohima has been struggling to provide services to the people due to manpower shortage and lack of facilities.
Doctors from department of Health and family welfare told Nagaland Post that the hospital needed regular staff- two clinical psychologists and two psychiatric social workers.
They said that there were only six in-service psychologists attached to the department, which is a shortage of psychologist to form psychiatric wing at Naga hospital Kohima.
Doctors also informed that, there were no trained personnel to operate the biofeedback machine in the hospital. It was also learnt that the mental hospital was in need of separate cell for mental prisoners, staff quarter and ambulance.
Citing the need for trainee hostel in view of annual academic teaching classes in batch wise for nursing students from Naga Hospital Authority Kohima, CIHSR Dimapur and IMDH Mokokchung, the doctors said that patients and trainees had to be accommodated together at the 25-bedded hospital, due to inadequacy in accommodation facility.
They also lamented on the irregularity in releasing of medicines.
Stressing on the need for awareness on mental health and on the existing service in all part of the state, doctors said that most of the patients, who sought mental care in the hospital, were those with abnormal behavior or the case has become serious.
They also emphasized on the need of rehabilitation centre attached to the hospital for those patients who experience minor mental illness or recovery after treatment.
It may be noted that, according to projections made by World Health Organization, anxiety and depression would emerge as the world’s single largest killer by 2020.
For which National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India’s report on “care and treatment in mental health institutions” stated that the human, material and financial resources were grossly inadequate to effectively deal with this huge burden of psychotic and neurotic disorders, leaving a treatment gap of more than 75% in many countries with low and lower middle incomes.
National Human Rights Commission pointed out that the treatment gap in India has been attributed to low levels of awareness about symptoms of mental illness, lack of rational and scientific temper resulting in myths and stigma, lack of access to information on the facilities for treatment available in state managed hospitals/private hospitals/clinics and lack of knowledge of the tangible benefits arising out of timely treatment.