Mental Health is an often neglected and severely underdeveloped section of the health sector globally, and even more so in India. With the availability of technology and better awareness about mental health issues and concerns in India, we are at a turning point where we can create facilities and infrastructure to support and treat mental health issues in India.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Atlas (2011) it is estimated that one in four people in the world are affected by mental or neurological disorders, at some point in their lives. In India, the prevalence estimates vary between 5.82% and 7.3%. In terms of absolute numbers suffering from mental illnesses, the prevalence estimate throws up a huge number of about 7 crore (70 million) persons. The proportion of those who need mental health care but who do not receive it, remains very high. This so-called “treatment gap” is estimated to reach between 76-85% for low- and middle-income countries, and 35-50% for high-income countries.

India is considered by WHO a low-middle income country and falls short of the necessary mental health professionals to deal with this gap.

In 2011, the World Health Organization estimated a shortage of 1.18 million mental health professionals, including 55,000 psychiatrists, 628,000 nurses in mental health settings, and 493,000 psychosocial care providers needed to treat mental disorders in 144 low- and middle-income countries.

The figures for psychologists working in mental health in India is 0.047 per 100,000 population compared to a global median of 0.60, this is roughly 13 times less than the global median. Compare this, with countries like Australia that have 84.6 psychologists per 100,000 population or US 29.03, Switzerland 40.78, Pakistan 0.25, China 0.18 per 100,000 population.

The global median number of facilities per 100,000 population is 0.61 outpatient facilities as compared to the Indian median of 0.329, 0.04 mental hospitals as compared to the Indian median of 0.004. There is no data or information available on the number or type of community residential facilities, or day treatment facilities in the country, and this stands testimony to the sheer lack of infrastructure and facilities.

These figures speak for themselves, and paint an absolutely grim picture of mental health in our country. Given the change in lifestyles, globalization and economic uncertainties; as well as having earned the dubious distinction of having the most number of suicides in the world (21.1 per 100,000 population) this trend will only grow if the treatment gap is not narrowed with efficient well trained mental health professionals (WHO Mental Health Atlas 2011).

India has the dubious distinction of being the Suicide Capital of the world, in terms of the number of people who succumb, while Pune leads with youth death statistics.

The above statistics give a dismal view of the ground realities, and highlight the need for not only mental health care facilities but for training and teaching facilities.

The Nanihi centre provides students with training of international standards, along with the requisite hands-on training, which is scarce in the country. In many colleges and universities, psychology is still taught simply as a theoretical subject and students aren’t exposed to the practicalities of working with real people and dealing with real cases. This has created a whole lot of individuals with the requisite degrees but with minimal practical skills.

The Centre is a teaching hospital, where students can learn with hands-on experience in a state-of-the-art facility. The community benefits by having an Outpatient department as well as a personal development and training in the city; where individuals so inclined, can work on moving higher up in Maslow’s hierarchy and engage their actualizing tendencies.