Scarcity of mental health facilities

Islamabad: Mental illness is a disorder that entails abnormal cognitive and behavioral patterns. As a society, we become victims of stigmatisation while seeking treatment against mental or psychological ailments, which has led to numerous unaddressed cases that have gone from mundane to life threateningly serious.

A major contributing factor to the mental-illness outburst is Drug Abuse. The past decade has observed an ease in accessibility of the substances, which has caused the youth to rapidly fall under the influence of drugs. A research conducted by UNDP in 2013 shows that the number of drug addicts in our country has risen from 4.25 million (a 2008 figure) to 6.7 million and a large percentage of drug addicts is between the ages of 18-29. Given that this data is almost 5 years old as of today, the number of drug addicts would have gone up by a considerable percentage, provided that no significant measures have been taken against drug abuse thus far.

Another issue in question, is the scarcity of proper mental health facilities. There are two key problems as to why the so called ‘rehab-facilities’ manifest more a picture of mental asylum than a health care center. First reason being the untrained staff. Numerous facilities hire the staff with the misdirection to, “contain the situation by any means necessary” as a result of which, the staff members proceed to assault the patients. Second problem, being the treatment methods. In a surprisingly large number of cases, the staff is known to pump the patients full of prescription drugs to keep them docile. This causes the patient’s dependency upon drugs to grow, which results in the deterioration of the patient’s health.

Fortunately, it is safe to say that not all hope is lost, as there are numerous platforms that have started a proper movement against the issue, with thousands of people being sensitized and on-boarded all across the world. A health care facility in Islamabad, known as House of Wellness (HOW), has embraced the challenge of rejuvenating the lives of those who seek the light. It is a small, yet premium facility, being run by a highly qualified practicing psychologists, who are also PhD scholars and enjoy a vast experience in the field. At HOW, the personnel focuses primarily upon therapeutic treatment, rather than relying solely upon conventional or medicinal methods of treatment. One of the most recent success stories involves an in-patient who came in as a bipolar and a drug addict, and left within a couple of months fully recovered with a job letter in hand. House of Wellness management team also independently enjoys a respectable status among the public, private and corporate level clients for their novel, yet highly practical training and assessment methods.

In interest of being responsible and empathetic members of the society, we must promote and support such ventures in order to curb the mental illness problems in our country. A contemporary approach towards the campaigning should be adopted, which specifically enables the younger generation to be the ambassadors for this message. The educational institutes as well as research and communications firms should take notice of this gap and engage in a robust awareness sequence to mitigate any persistent or potential disasters hovering over the society. The aforementioned suggestions are a few of many ways to bring about a positive paradigm shift to the society. Let us all join in on the resolve to enable the less fortunate or struggling individuals to Share the Light of life with us, and lead a healthy and empowered lifestyle. —