The biggest impediment to sound mental health in the country is the fact that there is a severe shortage of mental healthcare workforce. According to the WHO, in 2011, there were 0·301 psychiatrists and 0·047 psychologists for every 1,00,000 patients suffering from a mental disorder in India.
Currently there are less than 4,000 mental health professionals available for a demography of about 20 per cent (as per a WHO prediction for India by 2020) of 1.3 billion Indians suffering from mental illnesses of varied severity and type. Such issues of basic need fulfilment aggravate the scale of the problem and need immediate attention of policymakers and health authorities before they explode in an uncontrollable epidemic.
Rupsa Karmakar, Masters in Applied Clinical Psychology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Bachelors in Psychology, Loreto College, Kolkata; Catalyst Class of 2018 will share her experiences from the field, TISS classroom and talk about the road ahead in the mental health sector.
Rupsa, from the Catalyst Class of 2017-18 pursued Psychology from Loreto College Kolkata and then Masters in Applied Clinical Psychology from TISS (2018-2020). She has worked in clinical as well as community setups in government hospitals and asylums . Her interest lies in grass-root level work of community building, sustainability and accessibility to mental health resources. Also reaching to all sections of the society in affordable and easy access to mental health programmes. Rupsha believes in being ardent and vocal about the need of funding and advocacy in mental health field. During her fieldwork with NGO Tarasha, Rupsha was involved in a feminist and sustainable way of therapy, community programmes and awareness.