In recent years, India has been in a deep crisis.
It is the country with the highest suicide rate in the world, with the world’s highest number of people taking their own lives.
The country has a chronic healthcare system that is barely functioning.
In 2016, more than two million people died due to mental illness.
The state of emergency, which has been declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tackle the issue, has been extended to include mental illness, including the use of suicide drugs.
The Supreme Court has already declared the state of panic as the cause of suicides.
A survey commissioned by the health ministry in 2017 found that nearly 70 per cent of respondents who had been diagnosed with a mental illness felt depressed, anxious or depressed.
“We are at a tipping point where we can no longer ignore the problem of mental health,” says Rajdeep Sardesai, director of the Centre for Mental Health Studies, a Delhi-based think tank.
“What we are witnessing is a fundamental breakdown in the care and treatment of mental illnesses, especially in India,” he adds.
Mental illness and suicide are very different problems.
In India, people with a serious mental illness are almost two times more likely to take their own life than the general population.
The suicide rate for mental health has also risen in recent years.
The number of suicides has more than doubled in the last five years.
It has more people dying from a mental health condition than from any other cause, according to a study published in the Lancet.
The findings come as the Indian government tries to curb the rise in suicide rates and to find ways to treat people who have taken their lives.
In July, Prime Minister Pranab Mukherjee signed a controversial bill to regulate the use and sale of antidepressants in the country.
The new law was meant to address a problem that has persisted in the past: suicides by people with serious mental illnesses.
A key part of the bill is that antidepressants can only be prescribed for people who can’t cope with the drug.
But the move sparked controversy.
“I am afraid that this bill will create a new problem,” says Dr. Praveen Jain, a professor of psychiatry at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College.
The bill, however, was approved by the National Health Policy Commission, which sets national policy.
It’s likely to be amended in the coming months.
The National Mental Health Council, which represents the country’s mental health providers, says there are some good things in the bill.
But its chairman says it does not go far enough.
“The new bill doesn’t go far in addressing the mental health crisis,” said Praveet Kaur, president of the council.
“For instance, the act to regulate prescribing and dispense of antidepressants is still very vague.
It does not address the problem where the prescriber is not fully informed of the risk of the drug,” he says.
But Jain says that a better understanding of the risks of antidepressants could help patients to decide whether they need to take the medication.
“It is very important that the doctors who prescribe these medicines, know about the potential side effects and how they can be avoided,” he said.
He also says that there are steps the government can take to curb suicides.
For instance, he says the government should establish an independent panel to study the issue and make recommendations on how to improve the quality of care.
The government also needs to address the psychological distress caused by the bill, which he says is already being done.
“Our mental health system is very fragmented.
There is no single agency that works together to address these mental health problems,” he added.
Dr. K.P. Sharma, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance of Mental Health Professionals, says that the mental illness epidemic is not only a public health problem.
“There are also psychological health problems that are happening in our society,” he told Al Jazeera.
Sharma says that mental health professionals need to do more to help people to find the help they need.
“Some of the services that are available for people with mental illness include treatment of depression, anxiety, anxiety disorder, substance abuse, and mental health treatment, and counselling,” he points out.
“But we need more doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, counselors, psychologists, etc. to help these people in a holistic way.”
India has also faced the stigma of mental disorders and suicide.
In a recent report, the Centre For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that between 15-30 per cent, or between 200,000 and 500,000 people are suffering from depression and about 10,000 are taking their lives each year.
In 2017, the government reported that more than one in five people who committed suicide in India had been treated for a mental disorder.
The report also found that about 30 per cent had attempted suicide in the previous year.
“If you ask any of our people about depression, they will tell you it is not something they ever talk