HYDERABAD   -   October 10 marks World Mental Health Day, proposing various ways and ideas to reduce flare-ups of mental illness, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic disorder. This year’s theme focuses on reducing stress at the workplace.

Over the past two decades, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in mental health cases, with a large number of youth suffering from mental health issues due to job-related stress and uncertainty about the future.

Pakistan faces a growing mental health crisis, with approximately 50 million people experiencing mental health issues but unable to access support due to stigma, lack of awareness, and inadequate services. Remote areas of Sindh lack well-equipped mental health institutions, while hotspot areas like Thar and Umerkot have high suicide rates and mental health patients without access to advanced faculty.

The Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Institute of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, established in 1852 by Engineer Sir Cowasjee Jahangeer, is Sindh’s only major mental health institute. The Sindh Government has made numerous promises to upgrade the hospital into a modern mental health university, but implementation remains uncertain.

Eminent jurist Jhamat Mal Dr. Jamil Junejo and a team of specialized medical practitioners substantiated a proper act to run the institute in 2019, approved by the provincial government, but its practical execution is pending. Similarly, the Sindh Mental Health Act 2015 exists, but its implementation is rare. Section 49 states that individuals attempting suicide, including blasphemy accused, shall be assessed by an approved psychiatrist and treated under the Act’s provisions. The investigating agencies are also unaware of the significance of this law.

Youth and domestic women are disproportionately affected by mental illness. Dr. Iqra Rahim notes that domestic violence victims are more prone to mental health issues, especially those confined to their homes and prevented from socializing. Dr. Karim Nathani, a medical practitioner at MIYO Clinics, USA, attributes mental health issues to past traumas, genetics, and environmental factors, also citing excessive mobile phone use as a contributing factor. Dr. Adnan Khowaja proposes organizing mental health awareness sessions in remote areas to dispel prevalent myths. He further said that sharing mental health issues in our society is considered coordinal sin in our society and this tendency is further aggravating the situation.