Mumbai: Survey to examine mental health begins in city, 3,600 people to be interviewed, says BMC

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The Mental Health Survey has been taken up by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a representative manner in various metropolitan cities of the country. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Topiwala National Medical College and B. Y. L. Nair Charitable Hospital is selected for conducting this survey in the Mumbai Metropolitan city. In this survey, a total of 3 thousand 600 persons, selected randomly by the special software, will be interviewed for about 30 to 40 minutes, the BMC said in a statement.

The civic body said, the staff has also been appointed to reach out at the ward level in Mumbai and conduct the survey. This survey will be very important, to determine the need to establish and strengthen the mental health system, based on the outcomes of it.

It further said, the first ever National Mental Health Survey was conducted in 2015-16 under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences was chosen as the nodal coordinating centre, and the survey covered 6 regions and 12 states. It showed a lifetime prevalence of about 10 per cent of psychiatric disorders in the non-urban areas, and close to 14 per cent in the urban areas, with depression, mood and anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorder being the highest prevalent conditions in the population. Unfortunately, the treatment gap for most disorders was more than 60 per cent, with a great dearth of medicines, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers and psychiatric nurses across all states.

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"Keeping this in mind, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India) has decided to conduct the 2nd survey which will be a megacity survey and cover the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata in 2023. In the city of Mumbai, Topiwala National Medical College and B. Y. L. Nair Charitable Hospital is the nodal coordinating centre for the same. The Department of Psychiatry and Department of Community Medicine will jointly conduct this survery. Psychiatrists and community health physicians, along with the department of public health, in both state and BMC, will assess the mental health services and thus try to estimate the gap," the BMC said in the statement.

It said, the field staff have been employed, including one co-ordinator and seven other staffers, who will undertake a door to door survey which should take about 30-40 minutes per head, for those chosen through a randomisation software.

The survey will cover households in all wards, and cover all social strata to get appropriate representation of the entire population, including migrants. It also has a section added to cover Covid and related questions. The estimated sample size is 3,600 for the city of Mumbai. This survey will be completed by August/September 2023 i.e. within the next 8 to 9 months, the civic body said.

"It is imperative that we gather data for our megapolis, so we can put forth the mental health needs of the city and work towards improving the same in Mumbai," the BMC said.