On Saturday, Director of Health Services Kashmir launched a comprehensive two month long mental health awareness campaign titled ‘Let’s talk Mental Health (Waliu Kath Karo) across the valley. This is a much needed step and must be appreciated. The purpose of this campaign is to reach out to the people and provide them up-to-date information on mental health problems and create awareness among the masses about mental wellness, avoiding diseases and living a stress free life. From time to time, Health Department and other premier health institutions of the valley organize multiple events and programmes, educating people to improve their health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, over the years there is a dramatic change in the spread of mental health diseases and other life threatening ailments among the people living in the valley. Experts believe that the diseases like diabetes, depression, cancer, hypertension, obesity and stress related diseases are taking a heavy toll on the people in Kashmir. Not just adults, even children are fast becoming victims of such diseases. When this is the state of affairs in Kashmir, what is expected of our health administration? No government can afford to sit back while things are getting worse with each passing day. It is a medical emergency and needs urgent attention from all those government departments that are related to health sector. To begin with government must announce a comprehensive policy for improving the health care system in J&K. It must include the necessary uplift of the existing hospitals and a phased establishment of hospitals at different levels especially in the rural areas. Government should also encourage private sector to grow in the UT so that high end medical procedures are made available to the people at large. Further it will release some of the pressure from the government hospitals as the well-to-do sections of our society can benefit from such hospitals. Emphasis also needs to be laid on public information and awareness. Medical experts believe that lack of information among the people is also one of the reasons for deteriorating health scenario in the valley. So there is a need to launch a massive information campaign by the health department. There are various agencies which can play a pivotal role in spreading information about various diseases and those agencies are media and NGOs. Also, there is an urgent need to improve the quality of patient care in the hospitals and sincere efforts are needed in that regard. Upgrading infrastructure, quality training for the medical staff and competency of professionals are the prerequisites for developing a sustainable health care system. Government should work towards the implementation of a robust system that will improve the existing problems related to health care.
