Perspectives on interventions in child psychiatry in India

Abstract

India is a country with a population of more than 1 billion, and children below 16 years of age constitute more than 40% of its population. Despite our strengths in terms of great tradition and culture and above all abundance of family support, on downside, we have low budgetary resources, interference from competing and conflicting healing systems, scarcity of mental health personnel, ‘brain drain’, and the stigma of seeking help for problems related to the mental illnesses. The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) is one of the pioneering educational institutions of Asia for postgraduate medical education and research. The Department of Psychiatry at the PGIMER has been a leader not only in many crucial aspects of psychiatry including community psychiatry, schizophrenia, mood disorders, and psychometric research but also in some of the major pioneering child psychiatry research. This author has been privileged to be part of the child psychiatry research team at PGIMER that published the first Indian study on incidence of childhood psychiatric disorders. The current chapter looks at the child mental health scene in India with respect to interventions, both historical and contemporary. In addition to various ‘Western’ treatment options, indigenous ‘home-based interventions’, Indian family’s great tenacity in caring for mentally ill population, and their role as great resource in treatment and rehabilitation will be highlighted. The concluding section will present the challenges and opportunities for future in the field of child psychiatric interventions in India.