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Brief Summary
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Background of the study The WHO “defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity†(WHO, n.d). Unfortunately, mental aspects of health have not been got adequate attention contrary to physical ailments in our country. In India, people suffering from mental illnesses account for nearly 13.7 per cent of the country’s population and it is projected to be at 20 per cent by the end of 2020 (NIMHANS, 2016). At the same time, the WHO says that India has only 1 mental health professional for every 3,00,000 Indians (WHO, n.d). Subsequently, India envisages a severe shortage of mental health workforce including psychiatrists (0.3/100,000), psychiatric nurses (0.12/100,000) etc. in the mental health care delivery system (Prateek, 2017) led to a massive treatment gap, which is the difference between a total number of mentally ill people and those who receive treatment. And It is 83 per cent as per the national mental health survey conducted by NIMHANS which is alarming because this huge treatment gap itself is an indicator of quality, accessibility, and utilization of mental health care facilities (NIMHANS 2016). As a result, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind avowed that “India is facing a possible mental health epidemic†(Prateek, 2017) Late adolescence, aged 18 to 21 years (Jaworska, & MacQueen (2015) is the intermediary phase of the transition from late adolescents to adults and 75% of mental disorder`s onset is usually seen in this period (Kessler, 2005) of which 70% of mentally ill late adolescents are not getting adequate interventions at the early stage (Jurewicz, 2015). Therefore, 16 per cent of the total burden of diseases in youngsters is due to psychiatric illnesses, which means 1 in 6 mentally people are adolescents (WHO, 2019). Besides, Substance use disorder is also alarmingly high (30.17%) among young people based on a recent study in India (Jasani et al., 2019) which also found that there is a close association between mental illness and substance use disorders. Furthermore, suicide, one of the major causes of mortality among late adolescents, is closely linked to mental disorders and 90 % of people who die by suicide had shown symptoms of mental illness (Conway, Swendsen, Husky, He, & Merikangas, 2016). Hence, early identification and management of mental illness can prevent secondary substance use disorders and suicide as well among young adults. Unfortunately, In India, conventional healers and unlicensed practitioners still assume a significant role in handling mental illness by exploiting the public`s poor mental health knowledge and stigma, therefore mentally ill people are being subjected to inhumane practices and human rights violations.(Ghanashyam & Nagarathinam, 2010). Hence, public training program like Mental Health First Aid(MHFA) is need of the hour not only to reduce prevailing stigma related to mental illness but to improve mental health knowledge among the public. The MHFA course was devised to educate the public regarding mental illness and to identify early signs and symptoms of mental and behavioural disorders in 2000 by Betty Kitchener and Anthony Jorm. The former is a Registered Nurse and later is mental health literacy professor in Australia (www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org, 2013).MHFA can be “defined as the help provided to a person who is developing a mental health problem, experiencing a worsening of an existing mental health problem or in a mental health crisis. First aid is given until appropriate professional help is received or the crisis resolves†(Bovopoulos et al., 2016). Essentially, MHFA will equip the participants to give initial help to mentally ill people until they get professional care. Purpose of the Trial India is home to 464 million young adults and they are the future of our country. As mental health problems have a negative impact on youth`s productivity and capability, early identification and treatment of such problems is the key to the welfare of our society and country as a whole. The investigator has conducted a meticulous review of this topic and found out following points
1. Most psychiatric illnesses (75%) are established before the age of 24 and 10 to 20 % of youngsters are with clinically diagnosable mental problems, of which 70% of them are not getting adequate interventions at an early age. Early identification, interventions, diagnosis, and treatment would be the panacea for helping late adolescents to reach healthy adulthood and thus, preventing such a large burden of untreated mental disorders. The investigator intends to focus primarily on these aspects in this study. 2. The study expects to provide MHFA training to late adolescents because they are a promising group to teach and learn. They would serve as mental health first aiders in their institution as well as in our society and thus they can be the changing agents of the mental health delivery system in our country. 3. This project will help to create a pool of MHFA providers in the educational institution as well as in their community so that psychiatric problems can be identified at the beginning and can initiate action plans to provide help to individuals with mental problems or crises. 4. This study will appraise the present MHL of late adolescents in the Udupi district which can be utilized for better mental health services. |