MANGALDAI, March 8 � �A person with mental illness never considers himself to be mentally ill. On the other hand, the parents and family members of the patient very often try to hide the fact fearing the society would neglect them and their social status would go down. Unlike the families of lower income and higher income groups, this situation is very common in middle class families of the State.� This was stated by Dr Anjana Goswami, a prominent social scientist.
Also the director of leading non-government organization �Ashadeep�, Dr Goswami was delivering a lecture on the topic �Sensitization about mental illness against stigma and false perception� as the resource person in a workshop organized by �Satra�, a local NGO at the Youth Club here on Saturday.
Normally people show sympathy for a physically challenged person or patients with other diseases, she said. �But in case of a mentally ill patient, people never show any sympathy, rather they express signs of negligence and hatred as the people cannot see the state of his health.�
Referring to various examples from her long work experience in this field, Dr Goswami explained how patients recovered from the state of major mental illness or schizophrenia, later enjoying a normal and successful life. She said that like a diabetes or a high blood pressure patient, a mentally ill person is also a patient and can also lead a normal life with the help of regular medication.
She urged the people to avoid calling a mentally ill patient with derogatory terms like �mad� , �half brain�, etc., and treat them only as a patient. According to Dr Goswami, a person suffering from mental illness can be identified early in life from his day to day behaviour and here, the friends and the teachers can play a better role than the parents.
Dr Goswami, while highlighting the sorry state of government level support in mental health in the country, pointed out that just at a time when about two per cent of the population are suffering from mental illness, most of the civil hospitals in the State are running without a psychiatrist and necessary medicines.
The workshop inaugurated by Razavee Hussain, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Darrang, also witnessed a presentation of a recent study on mental illness by Nani Saikia.