Hyderabad: Drug addicts need mental healthcare, say experts

Need to integrate therapy, counselling and recovery: Experts

Hyderabad: The rising tide of arrests made by the Hyderabad police of individuals addicted to psychotropic drugs needs to be accompanied by comprehensive mental health care services. In Telangana State, there is an urgent need to address the deep-rooted stigma among public towards reaching out for mental health care services and even lack of awareness among them about integrating therapy and counselling into drug recovery programmes, senior psychiatrists here believe.

The criminalisation of drug users is not an effective method of prevention of substance abuse in the society. Instead, it has ended up creating more dangerous situations like encouraging police harassment and exposing addicts to violence in prisons or jails, which exacerbates the situation, mental health care specialists in Hyderabad said.

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While Telangana State has 33 Government-run de-addiction centres in as many districts, there are not many takers for the mental health care services that they have to offer. Due to the stigma attached to visiting such a facility and lack of awareness, authorities are struggling to fill up these specialised centres.

“Consistent community awareness campaigns promoting the importance of mental health among the public and families of drug addicts alongside increased accessibility to such services will be a significant step forward. We have been trying to engage with the public, families, substance abusers, college students and even teachers to drive home this point,” says CEO, State Mental Health Authority (SMHA) and Superintendent, Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Erragadda, Dr M Uma Shankar.

Along with policing, efforts are on to engage with the community and make the public aware of the importance of mental health care facilities. “Engaging with the community and spreading awareness is the only way to beat the stigma. That is the reason why, we have been consistently venturing out and organising awareness programmes,” says Professor and HOD, Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Jagtial, Dr Vishal Akula.

The senior psychiatrist from Jagtial, who is also the general secretary, the Indian Psychiatric Society, Telangana State, pointed out that immediate family members i.e. parents of addicts also play an important part in stigmatising mental health care.
“Instead of being aggressive, parents, close relatives and siblings of addicts must strive to have a cordial relationship. People have this tendency to even stigmatise substance abusers because of which they become social outcasts. Such kind of situations must be avoided at any cost. There is a definite need for a concerted and holistic effort to address this issue,” Dr Vishal pointed out.