Aurangabad, June 14:
The Psychological Welfare Association (PWA) has requested the State government to appoint psychiatrists in all the government hospitals in Maharashtra. A statement was submitted to the State minister of public health Rajesh Tope here recently.
PWA Aurangabad president, Dr Sandeep Shisode said, in a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 7.5 per cent of Indians suffer from some form of mental illness and it is estimated that by the end of this year, about 20 per cent of Indians will suffer from mental illness. Despite the number of patients increasing, there are no full time appointments of psychologist or psychiatric counselor in any government, semi-government, private sector hospital in the state to manage mental problems. This is a matter of regret. A psychologist or psychiatrist is a person oriented towards the society by scientifically resolving all the issues related to mental health, behavioral doubts, fears and problems in daily life by removing various misconceptions in the society. Hence a full time trained psychologist and a psychiatric counselor from a reputed university should be appointed in all hospitals in the State.