Staff Reporter :
Speakers in a discussion meeting on Wednesday said there is a very little scope to get treatment for the mental disease-affected persons in the rural areas as it is almost impossible to get a specialist physician in the District and Upazila Health Centres.
Only 220 registered physicians are available in the country to provide treatment to about two crore people with mental disease and surprisingly, half of them stay in the capital city Dhaka, they said.
The specialist physicians and senior government officials made the above statements at a discussion titled – International Day Against Abuse of Drugs and Illegal Trafficking – jointly organized by National Mental Health Institute and Bangladesh Association of Psychiatrists in the city.
Assistant Professor Mekhla Sarkar of National Mental Health Institute presented the key-note paper said among the drug addicts about 10 per cent get affected in mental disease.
The speaker said an anarchism condition has been prevailing in the treatment of people those are affected with mental disease having an addiction in intoxicating drugs while the number of drug affected people in the country is around 70 lakh.
Assistant Professor of National Mental Health Institute Helal Uddin Ahmed said the authorized physicians should give to the drug addicts. “As it is a disease, so it must not be treated by other persons. Actually, it is not possible to give accurate treatment to the mental diseas affected persons except the physicians.”
Most of the speakers urged the government to give the authority to the Health Ministry for giving license to drug addicts cure centres instead of Home Ministry.
Among others, Director General of Directorate for Health Services Professor Abul Kalam Azad and eminent physiatrist Mohit Kamal spoke on the occasion.
