A recent health study about Jammu and Kashmir has said that around 45% of the adult population in the Kashmir valley is suffering from some sort of mental distress.
The 45% population sums up to around 1.8 million adults in Kashmir. “45% of Kashmir’s adult population is suffering from some form of mental distress,” a study titled, ‘Mental Health in Kashmir: Conflict to COVID-19’, said in its report.
The report said that there is a high prevalence of depression (41%), anxiety (26%), post-traumatic stress disorder (19%), and 47% had experienced some trauma. There is another study carried out by Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar (IMHNS) which is titled, ‘Prevalence and Pattern of Substance Use Disorders in Ten Districts of Kashmir’.
The report says that the Kashmir Valley has an estimated sizable population of 67468 substance-dependent individuals. “While opioid dependence prevalence in all the 10 districts of Kashmir is 2.23% and the total number of opioid dependents is estimated to be 52 404 in the Kashmir valley making it an epidemic,” the IMHNS report said.
To address the mental issues of the Kashmiri youth, the administration had established a Tele Mental Health Centre Srinagar. It was established in October 2022. An official of the center said that there has been a rise in mental health cases in Kashmir in the past thirty years of conflict.
He said that the center has received around 12,500 calls related to mental health disorders. “Roughly, we have received around 12,500 calls related to mental health disorders which include around 500 crisis interventions in people having self-harming ideas,” the official said.
The Tele Mental Health Centre Srinagar is located at the old building of the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar. It was previously called the Psychiatric Disease Hospital.
One of the officials at the Tele Mental Health Centre Srinagar said that the highest number of calls revived in a day was 160 when an advertisement about the Tele Mental Health services had come up in a widely circulated local English daily of Kashmir.
He said that the centre has a three-tier system in place. The counsellors are all psychologists. The typical session lasts around 30 minutes but some sessions take more time. “The first line is of counsellors, who receive calls from people having depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse disorders, exam stress and other anxiety issues,” the official said.
He said that in case the counsellors feel that any caller needs a psychiatrist’s advice, they transfer a call to a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist on call. “The third tier of the system is the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar (IMHNS),” the center official said.
