Mental healthcare: Facing a number of challenges...

and in ways that promote social inclusion and recovery.

There is need to have many more mental healthcare institutions that are hospital-based but along with that is the requirement for smaller, community-based services that are integrated into general health services. As much as there should be emphasis on expanding outpatient services, there should also be increasing provisions for inpatient facilities in all general hospitals to facilitate the continuum of care. Mental healthcare must adopt an approach from promotion and prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, care and recovery.

In mental healthcare, the emphasis should also be on protection from the dangers of over-diagnosis and over-medicalisation to the importance of information and monitoring. In India, the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 in this context is promising as it seeks to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of the mentally ill and to provide treatment, care and rehabilitation to improve the capacity for full potential to integrate into the community life. Within this framework we can incorporate the issue of improving mental healthcare in the workplace and hope for resources and means in organisations to create supportive environment for employees and workers, identification of early signs of burnout, provisions for stress management, reducing stigma and maintaining in all ways mental health wellness.

The writer is associate professor, department of Sociology, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, with specialisation in health, gerontology and development studies