Society considers them a liability

It is one of those issues families do not like to air in public. Mentally challenged children or adults are not talked about and are usually hidden away from sight. The mentally challenged denied proper treatment and are looked down upon as a burden on the family. Hence, it is not surprising to find such mentally ill patients being regularly dumped in the country's dedicated Pabna Mental Hospital. That is just the beginning of the story. According to a report published in this paper, there have been cases where families give false addresses so that there is no possibility for hospital authorities to return patients to their homes once treatment is completed. This prevents the hospital from admitting new patients in need of immediate attention.

The number of psychiatrists nationwide is painfully inadequate compared to the number of patients. The Pabna Mental Hospital runs with only four doctors for 500 beds and needs another 30 doctors. Add to this a culture of general physicians not referring patients to seek psychiatric help and we have a situation where proper treatment of mentally challenged patients is practically non-existent. A large number of mental illnesses can be cured with proper treatment; it is unacceptable that patients suffering from psychological disorders should be treated with such neglect. Our health policy must acknowledge and make adequate provisions for treating mental disorders. This requires planning and financial allocations in the health budget for recruitment of mental health practitioners and making provisions in medical institutions. With around a tenth of the population suffering from one form of mental disorder or other, this issue needs to be addressed properly at policy level.