A STUDY report on children’s mental health in Bangladesh shows psychiatric disorders among children here is very high. The study conducted by ICDDR-B in association with the National Institutes of Mental Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA which revealed that such psychiatric disorders have their origin to malnutrition, low education of parents and a family history of mental illness, according to a news report published in The New Nation on Saturday. It showed that behavioural disorders were most common among children, but psychiatric disorders were also reported among socially disadvantaged children, such as those living in urban slums in Bangladesh. The study further revealed that the prevalence of mental disorders is estimated to between 3.4 and 22.9 percent.
The authors collected and evaluated literature on the prevalence of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, psychiatric and behavioural disorders, along with co-morbidity with chronic diseases and service delivery and treatment options in Bangladesh. The review found that the overall prevalence of mental disorders in Bangladesh is between 6.5 and 31 percent among adults, with psychiatric and psychogenic disorders such as depression, anxiety and neurosis most commonly reported. The prevalence of mental disorders was much higher in overcrowded urban communities than rural ones, and among the poor. Chronic diseases and mental disorders are mutually reinforcing. Mental disorders can increase the risk of chronic diseases and the intensity of symptoms by deteriorating an individual’s immune system. The authors have stressed the need for more research to better understand the magnitude of the problem in Bangladesh. They have also advised for better access for patients to qualified mental health professionals and launching mass awareness campaigns to reduce misconceptions about mental health conditions.
The findings show there is an urgent need for child mental health services in which Bangladesh is lagging behind as a resource-poor country. It is the harsh truth that the magnitude of child mental health problems remain invisible to our policy makers which leads to an obvious vacuum in child mental policies to guide the process of such service development. But child health professionals remained overburdened without much institutional support. Mental illness remains a taboo refraining people from seeking help. Policies that will support child mental health service development needs advocacy tools and open discussion about the problems.
People tend to believe that the country need more training of healthcare professionals in children mental health so that aggrieved families can seek and also get professional treatment closer to their door. These solutions require simultaneous approaches by our government and NGOs to encourage service development and utilization of hospital resources for the purpose. It is high time preparations need to be made to take care of the mental health needs of our children who need it to help them grow as a normal citizen. The failure would force them to grow as disadvantaged population to become a burden on the society.
