The country is facing dire shortage of psychiatrist in public mental health field intensifying miseries to a section of people who are sufferings from various mental complications like mental health disorder, depression, and bipolar disorder.
Public health experts in the wake of recent incidents of maltreatment on mental patients urged authorities concerned to take time worthy action to ensure safe mental health service.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the total population of the country is about 16 crore 76 lakhs. Of them, about three crore people are suffering from mental illness. In other words, 16.8% of the total population is suffering from mental illness. However, the treatment of this huge number of mental patients is very inadequate in the country.
Public health professor Tajuddin Sikder citing ground reality states that the treatment of mental illness in the country is minimal; nearly 10% receives treatment so far.
The inadequacy of manpower and infrastructure in proportion to the population is the major drawback of this sector. And most people in our country undermine mental health until it becomes severe, he added.
On the one hand, there is a dire shortage of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and psychiatric workers; similarly, the treatment of mental illness is still going on in the country in the traditional way which must be addressed, he suggested.
Referring to the crisis, he furthermore highlighted that privately run hospitals or clinics do not have the specialist and infrastructural facilities to operate them. When something draws attention to the media, the government takes action. Later it goes back to the previous state, if there is no continuous monitoring, the crisis will not end.
Associate Professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital (NIMH) Tariqul Alam Sumon said, “There are only two specialized hospitals in the country for mental health services. Among them, one is the 200-bed National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital located in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. The other is a 500-bed hospital in Pabna.
He also said that there is a shortage of doctors, manpower, and infrastructure in proportion to the population. Compared to other medical services in the case of diseases, good medical care services have not been developed in the government as well as in the private sector.
