'Have human approach in dealing with mentally ill'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, OCT. 13. Calling for a human approach in dealing with the mentally ill, Mr. Justice Ashok Bhan, Acting Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, said on Thursday that they deserved good treatment from society and should not be pitied. He said "there are sick people and being inhuman to them is satanic".

He was addressing a gathering of judicial officers at a two-day workshop here to review the acts relevant to mental health.

The workshop was organised by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) District and Session's judges of family courts and judicial officers from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai, Goa and parts of Karnataka were participating in it.

Referring to the Mental Health Act of 1987, he observed that it protected the rights of the mentally ill. Such persons could be made useful members of society given proper treatment. The Act cast certain duties on the judges such as the appointment of guardians for the mentally ill.

The Director of NIMHANS, Ms. Gourie Devi, regretted the stigma associated with the mentally ill and said combined efforts were needed to tackle the issue of removing the stigma. The excellent epidemiological studies carried out by NIMHANS stressed that one per cent of the population had mental disorders such as schizophrenia, and five per cent suffered from minor ones. The last two decades saw remarkable scientific and technological achievements in developing better drugs for the mentally ill.

The Central Mental Health Authority had recommended that the judiciary be appraised of the Acts relating to mental health such as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985, and the People with Disabilities Act, and also the problems in their implementation. The workshop was arranged accordingly, said Dr. Mohan K.Issac, Professor and Head of Department, Psychiatry, NIMHANS. The Authority had felt that the implementation of the Act was not satisfactory.

The objectives of the workshop included identifying difficulties in the proper implementation of the Acts related to mental health as well as their remedies; making recommendations for the proper implementation of the Acts, and apprising the legal and judicial profession regarding the various aspects of mental health care.

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Section  : Southern States
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