No country and no person is immune to mental disorders all over the world and their impact in psychological, social and economic terms is very high. World Health Organization (WHO) predictions based on a worldwide survey indicate that future will bring dramatic increase in mental disorders making it the Crisis of the 21st century. It further elaborates that out of every four people, who turn to health services, at least one is troubled by these disorders, which often are not correctly diagnosed.

Five out of ten leading causes disability worldwide are mental health problems such as Depression (36.5%), Alcoholism (11.3%), Bipolar disorder (10.5%), Schizophrenia (8.7%) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; depression would be ranked 2nd cause of disability worldwide by year 2020.

The burden due to major depression increases 40% more then direct burden, once suicide is taken into account. Worldwide there are 340 million cases of major depression disorder, 45 million cases of schizophrenia and between 10-20 million attempted suicides each year.

One third of the global population has no access to essential psychotropic drugs. For the first time in the history of WHO, the Director General has decided to devote World Health Day (7th April) to Mental Health. WHO has already started a Global School Contest, the theme being Mental Health.

The year 2001 will be aimed at raising awareness, fighting stigma and improving the care of mentally ill in our country by Delhi Psychiatric Society, which would be holding many public awareness programmes in the year 2001 under the guidance of Dr Sandeep Vohra who is the Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. In order to reach out to the masses and sensitize general public to issues related to stress and mental health, the society would be coordinating with WHO, Health Ministry and various other voluntary organizations in implementation of the programmes chalked out in pursuance of the WHO guidelines. Help is likely to be sought from national celebrities in the field of cinema, sports, fashion, art and politics etc to reach out to the masses to counter this dreaded disease, which can be treated very easily with positive health care and professional counseling.

In this context the plan of Delhi Psychiatric Society for the year 2001 among others would consist of:
1. Public Lectures highlighting various mental illnesses, ways of prevention and the role of medicines and psychotherapy in it.
2. Mental Health Camps all over the city in which people would be screened for stress related problems and treated free by members of society.
3. School based programmes in which teachers, parents and students would be sanitized to various issues related to prevention and treatment of stress related problems.
4. Psychiatry updates for the fellow physicians who are usually the first contact with patients having stress related problems.
5. Corporate stress management programmes.

Such similar programmes will be implemented in cities all over India with the help of various government agencies, NGO's Voluntary groups from schools and colleges. Delhi Psychiatric Society will serve as a nucleus to carry out the WHO charter on Mental health.

Jyoti Narang