CHENNAI: A distressed, half-naked woman was seen running on the streets of Anna Nagar. Her clothes were torn, her face was covered with dirt and she had no idea what her name was or where she came from. As she sat on the pavement muttering to herself, passersby ignored her and went about their lives. If that’s not enough, she was abused and faced harassments from numerous people everyday. Eventually, she decided to end it all and committed suicide by jumping in front of a moving bus. Needless to say, nobody really missed her on the busy streets of Chennai anymore.

According to Union ministry statistics, there are 15,05,624 mentally ill people in the country and Tamil Nadu, which holds the fifth place, has 1,00,847. Experts say that very little has been done to address the problem of mental health in Tamil Nadu.

An official from the Directorate of Medical Education said although the state has a good healthcare index, compared to other states, it lacks adequate manpower and infrastructure to implement mental health care programmes. “For instance, for a population of 7.2 crore people, the state has just 350 psychiatrists. As for hospitals, TN has the 1,800-bed Institute of Mental Health apart from a few hundred beds in medical college hospitals and district headquarters hospitals. There are less than 1,500 beds in private sector,” said the official.

Former director of public health Dr S Elango said while the state government allocates a lot of funds for other health issues, the subject of mental health continues to be neglected over the past few decades. “For patients with severe mental illnesses, it is very difficult to survive on the streets. Some 90% of the mentally ill homeless people are suffering from problems like schizophrenia and can harm themselves or those around them,” he said.

Dr Elango further said there is a huge demand and supply gap when it comes to qualified personnel to deal with mental health problems in the state and the government has to step in and increase infrastructure and manpower at the earliest. “The government can set up toll free numbers through which the public can inform the health department when see a mentally retarded person wandering on the street and ensure that they get treatment,” he said.

