MENTAL health remains a deprioritised public health concern with no updated national data and a bare minimum budget allocation for prevention and treatment. The latest national mental health survey was conducted in 2018, which showed 16.8 per cent of the adults and 13.6 per cent of children suffered from mental illness. It also showed that more than 92 per cent of the adults and 94 per cent of children diagnosed with such an illness had received no treatment. Although there is no national prevalence survey, experts fear that the scale of vulnerability to mental illness is considerably high. Their predictions are not unfounded given that the suicide rate has escalated in recent years. In 2023, Aachol Foundation reported that 513 students of schools, colleges, universities and madrassas died by suicide. Psychiatrists assume that the Covid outbreak and the crisis in the economy with unprecedented food inflation, increasing unemployment and frequent natural disasters have taken a toll on mental health, but successive governments have been indifferent towards the cause.
The Health Services Division admitted the persistent policy gap and the division's secretary admitted that mental health had received little financial support. The Bangladesh Psychological Association says that the government allocated only 0.5 per cent of the health budget for mental health, which appears to be an evidence of negligence. The lack of financial resources eventually impacted both treatment and prevention. At the public level, there are only two mental health hospitals, the National Institute of Mental Health in Dhaka and the Pabna Mental Hospital. Recently, the government has set up six well-being centres in four districts in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation. An International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh study reports that only 260 psychiatrists, less than two per 10 lakh people, and about 565 psychologists are there. Psychologists say that only six out of 56 public universities offer psychology courses and the few graduates remain unemployed because there are no institutional positions for psychologists in district or upazila hospitals. People who can afford seek treatment in the private sector. Otherwise, a majority of the patients remain untreated. The absence of mental health care in the public health system has created an opportunity for the private sector to exploit the situation. The social stigma, as mental health experts say, is also an impediment to seeking support.
The government should, therefore, immediately take steps to conduct a national mental illness prevalence survey so that it can determine the scale of vulnerability and make policy decisions accordingly. At the same time, it should consider integrating mental health services at every level of the health system. In doing so, the government needs to enhance psychology and psychiatric training in universities. The health ministry should also take steps to destigmatise mental illness with nationwide campaigns.