Punjab devoid of govt rehabilitation facilities
The phenomena of rising mental health issues, especially due to superspreader related repercussions such as inflation, unemployment, and isolation, is either swept under the rug or no government sponsored treatment is made available.
Despite millions in the country reporting some form of psychiatric illness, Pakistan’s most populous province lacks government operated rehabilitation centers pushing those with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, to name a few, towards private rehabilitation centers which often cost an arm and a leg.
Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister for Health, Hanif Khan Pitafi, while talking to The Express Tribune acknowledged the problem, stating: “While it is true that the number of patients with mental health issues was increasing in the province, it is also a reality that there is no institution at the government level where these patients can be rehabilitated.”
Sadaf Hameed Lodhi, based in Sahiwal is an individual affected by depression and was amongst the miniscule number of people willing to talk about their mental health issues despite the taboo associated with psychiatric diseases in the country. “I developed psychological problems nearly two years ago due to domestic disturbances. However, there was no treatment available in Sahiwal so I had to come to Lahore,” she informed. A despondent Lodhi stated that even in the provincial capital private rehabilitation centers were just minting money under the guise of helping. “After many hardships I found a psychiatrist who prescribed some sedatives but that has not helped my mental health at all,” she lamented.
Dr Shehzad Tahir, a psychologist based in Lahore, is familiar with the plight of Lodhi and at least 15 million other people in the country who suffer from some form of mental illness, as per Pakistan Association for Mental Health, a Karachi-based organization - a number, which is considered to be understated by independent experts. “There are many psychiatrists in various cities, including the provincial capital, who provide them [patients like Lodhi] with temporary sedatives but do not find a permanent solution to the problem,” he informed.
Dr Tahir, while talking to The Express Tribune, expressed his frustration at the fact that there was no institution in the province at the government level for the mentally ill. “As a result, patients’ relatives take them to various private hospitals for treatment and have to pay exorbitant fees,” he said.
However, those whose relatives are not aware of psychiatric illness have it even worse, as per Dr Syed Imran Murtaza, the medical superintendent of a non-governmental rehabilitation center in Lahore. “Some think that mental health patients are seeing ghosts or are under the influence of magic and end up taking them to healers who make life even more miserable for the patients,” he said. Murtaza, terming it as a health policy failure, informed that globally there is one psychiatrist for every 20,000 people, whereas in Pakistan there is one psychiatrist for 2 million people.
Pitafi, when inquired about this policy failure, informed that recently the Minister for Health, Dr Yasmin Rashid, and Minister for Social Welfare, Syed Yawar Abbas Bukhari, have agreed on departmental cooperation for rehabilitation of the mentally ill. “We also need more institutions like the Government Institute of Mental Health Sciences in Lahore as they are necessary for the recovery and rehabilitation of those with psychiatric illnesses,” Pitafi told The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2022.