Mental Health for All by Involving All | Vikram Patel | TED Talks

Nearly 450 million people are affected by mental illness worldwide. In wealthy nations, just half receive appropriate care, but in developing countries, close to 90 percent go untreated because psychiatrists are in such short supply. Vikram Patel outlines a highly promising approach -- training members of communities to give mental health interventions, empowering ordinary people to care for others.

[dlee]

i suffered from depression which affected me in every way. physically and of course mentally. my spirit was still there thank God. i was 'out of touch' with reality and was living in my own little world in my head. I had to drop out of school and its been 5 months since, and im on the road to recovery. there is help people, as well as hope. wish yall the best.

[TheCreateAUsername]

I have a bad case of Anxiety, and your the first person to stand up for me that I've heard, Thanks.

[serendipity]

I'm a psychologist practising in Mumbai. As much as I agree with this even ten years down the line, one important issue is despite resources, people not accessing them due to stigma, shame, taboo and cultural conditioning. The obsession of physical health and giving the mind step treatment is a real existent evil. Not enough emphasis on the mental well being and mind body connect further deepens the divide. I hope we see a day when people start giving enough if not more importance to mental health!

[colecosbitt]

Mental health, something many people know about but do not truly understand the complexity and seriousness regarding the effects it has on a person. I have learned about mental illnesses prior to this video but wanted to know more. I was surprised to hear that 400-500 million people around the world are estimated to be suffering from a mental illness. Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in the world. Depression itself is the third leading cause of mental illness. This video talked about the importance of proper health care given to people with mental illness rather than being turned away like so many have been. The difference in the quality of care received by a person with mental illness is why they tend to have shorter life spans compared to people without mental illness. It’s proven that people with mental illness live shorter lives than people who aren’t suffering from one, the life expectancy gap is as much as 20 years in developed countries and increases in developing countries. I enjoyed how the speaker incorporated the importance of life quality in relation to proper health care. DALY, also known as disability adjusted life year. What this is, is a period of when a person first acquired an illness and began living with it on a day to day basis and has had to adjust his normal life routines to try and deal with his/her mental illness. At an international level we need to begin offering easy access to care at an affordable level. Giving better health care to people with mental illness is fundamentally empowering as noted in the video. It also allows people to become more effective in their everyday lives and lets the person become a guardian of their own health. People suffering from a mental illness should receive quality medical care and it’s important that medical professionals begin to bridge the gap between what we already know about mental illness and learn how to successfully apply it to the every day world.

[drcas]

Hi Vikram, Gauri, Ashok - back in 1993 - in Zimbabwe- so proud of your path well trodden. I’m still in that ED!! ❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏Caroline xx

[everybodyhasabrain]

Great message. Regardless of the country, we all need to become more engaged in the discourse around mental health and more open about each of our own personal struggles with mental health. Everybody has a brain!

[aaaaaa]

One of the amazing presentations i ever come across, addressing the problem directly and provided the solutions. Thanks Prof Vikram Patel

[CannabisIsMedicineUK]

thank you for making this. My story is a living horror story.. I have BPD, but also have illnesses and disabilities. I have a lazy bowel and it perforated in 2011. When I went to A and E I was disbelieved and told that I was making up my pain and symptoms to get attention. I got iller and iller over 5 days on a ward, and they refused me a CT scan and tried to discharge me and send me home. I Had pain that I didn't think humans could possibly endure. My pain and my fear was primal, I* made animal noises. I knew I was dying but noone believed me.
On day 4 they rang my friend and told her they were sending me home and she begged them not to, on They agreed to discharge me in the morning. On day 5 I was so seriously ill I vomited faeces and it was the most terrifying thing ever. It was only then the medics realised I was dying . They ran my trolley into theatre and gave me a colostomy then put me in ICU where I was now fighting for my life with septic shock. I slipped into a coma and was on life support. They took my friends into a room and told them I was not going to survive and they asked them to turn off the life support. I managed to breathe but I fought for every breath, every heartbeat, whilst hallucinating horrific torture. I pulled through after a month in ICU, but was in hospital for 3 months.

I then had to deal with the fact that I now had my bowel hanging out of my belly. it was the most disturbing thing to deal with, with pre existing mental illness. I developed severe PTSD from, the medical negligence, with a terror of dying, and a fear of being disbelieved again, and a phobia of hospitals and medics.I had the bag for 2 1/2 years, then an ileostomy for a year. I have had another 5 major bowel surgeries in the last 5 years, to fix the resulting damage and I'm on thew urgent list for my 6th. My life has changed irreversibly. I got rid of the bag but I live with faecal k incontinence, m and I'm only 45.

I t took 5 years to get an apology off the hospital for the medical and psychological horror they have put me through for 5 years. What I want is for what I went through to never happen to another mentally ill patient in a UK hospital again. There is no excuse.. A bowel surgeon may not know what the different mental illness are and how they manifest, but there is a mental health team at that hospital.. all they needed to do was call and ask whow does BPD manifest, if they had done that simple task, my health and my life would not have been ruined. They had misconstrued BPD with munchausen's syndrome. Nowhere in the DSM5 does it say that people with BPD make up physical symptoms to get attention. Another excuse that they gave was that they thought I had learning difficulties or was in psychosis, because I was so delirious because I has sepsis. They asked my friends many times if I had these conditions and my friends told them that I didnt, that I have a degree and can communicate perfectly.. I WAS PHYSICALLY ILL!!! But, does that mean that if someone has any form of mental illness, including psychosis or learning difficulties, that makes them exempt fro ever getting physically ill? IT IS UTTER INSANITY!!

They caused me more damage as every surgery that was planned got cancelled multiple times, and I got told that because the NHS is in such crisis, they refused me planned surgery and told me they would only operate when it became life threatening, so they forced me into 3 more life threatening medical emergencies where I got very ill and had to have a much more complex surgery with a month long admission with severe post operative complications. Thi8s added layers of both physical damage and psychological.
Last summer, when I got the apology, I proposed fighting to make the system safe for mentally ill patients who also have a physical illness. The chief executive of the hospital agreed to make changes and was going to keep me posted wit h them, but they never did. In those 5 years, I was refused any mental health support whatsoever, for the BPD and the PTSD.
Not only was I very ill, fighting the hospital, I also had to fight the mental health system for 5 years, desperate to get some help for the complex trauma I was experiencing, but got told that I was coping when I wasn't and denied help.. It took until last summer for me to finally be able to access mental health support. But the trauma has become so ingrained that I feel there ius no hope of recovery.

Now my hospital is in permanent "special measures" so I will be forced to go through more multiple cancellations and be forced into another medical emergency.It is harrowing.I flagged up that the NHS is focussing on cutting money short tertmn, but the long term implications of this is not saving money!! The surgery is more complex and risky and instead of a 5 day admission, it costs them to keep me in for a month each time.
I want to fight for change but it is impossible!! I don't know how much more my body and mind can take!
The final point I had to make in the meeting was the treatment the mentally ill get when they are in a physical hospital. It is like we are meant to take off our mental illnesses at the door, like a coat, and put them on again when we leave. We cannot cut off out minds and bodies!! The treatment and attitudes of the nursing staff is that you are being difficult or obstructive or attention seeking if you're scared or having a panic attack. I have tried writing letter before I am admitted, explaining my BPD, PTSD and hospital phobia, but it gets ignored.. We need education about mental illnesses in our hospitals and we need it now!!! All it takes is a phone call.
i am now on my 5th incisional hernia, in constant pain, no core muscle strength that has accelerated my arthritis in my spine . I have to have a care team. If I had been scanned and believed on day 1, I wouldn't have almost died from sepsis and the damage would have been significantly less.

If anyone has any ideas as how to fight this further to prevent the serious injury and inevitable deaths that will occur, from denying the mentally ill access to physical medical care, and from all the medical emergencies the NHS is forcing people to endure year after year, please get in touch with me. THIS BARBARIC TREATMENT HAS TO .
This is not happening in a 3rd world country.It is incomprehensible that this negligence is happening in the UK, and it is so hidden.

[mikeyo]

On the contrary it is training that destroys people's innate abilities to heal each other mentally. All you need to do is give ordinary people the confidence that they can help people with mental health issues. Such people would be just as effective as psychiatrists who are mostly average.

[joebazooks]

I suffer from social anxiety, and a lot of people tell me, "Oh, you just think too much." And, sure, I may think too much and possibly over-analyze things, but when did thinking too much and analyzing things become a problem? That's the big question I have, despite whether or not I think too much and over-analyze things.

[manuelgarabats]

Thank you for expressing your points of views regarding mental health. In the past years, I have been more aware regarding the increase of the concern of these conditions in our society. It is still a taboo topic in some occasions and, I feel, that we are not educated to address them when we are growing up in high school or in the workforce. I was not aware that mental illnesses, especially suicide, had such a large amount of influence around the world, especially younger ones. I do question the classification of several conditions or at least how severe they are, because of my own lack of awareness; such as not seeing the impact of them in my community. Why people with mental illness do not receive the same treatment as someone with the same condition but without a mental illness? I believe if because they are afraid to use their resources to cure half of the problem or because they are dismissing the relevance or importance of these health problems. I was surprised to listen that there was not that many psychologist or psychiatrists, especially in India. The research that your coworkers and yourself did was fascinating and that is why I would like to see more programs worldwide, with not only with mental illnesses, but also other common conditions like arthritis or pneumonia. I strongly agree with your view on educating the community in how to handle or treat mental health problems; it would decrease the suicide and cyberbullying, for example, in the current youth and could break the chain of harassment for the future. I enjoyed your explanation about "sundar" and I do want to refocus it to the "s, " because the simplification of these health problems is critical specially because not everyone has the medical knowledge or social awareness to comprehend the complicated explanations. I recently watched a video about why the healthcare cost are so expensive in the United States and I admire your approach in how bringing back the healthcare back to the communities will reduce the cost of care as a whole. If I could go to a mentor or community center when I feel depress or sad, instead of the doctor who might prescribe medication, it will drastically reduce the cost and the consumption of medications.

[es]

This is an inklusive approach I was looking for. Thank you for sharing!

[saideepreddy]

Religion is a big mental health tool which is very smart and highly advanced concept which was developed thousands of years back itself,
The concept of God and belief in God really prevent many many many many mental health issues in illeterate, uneducated and immature people
It gives immediate relief and a hope for people,
Especially stress and anxiety issues are completely preventable with belief in God,

[jamiesonfletcher]

"There is no definition of a mental disorder.  It’s bullshit.  I mean, you just
can’t define it.” “These concepts [of distinct mental disorders] are virtually impossible to define precisely with bright lines at the borders.”-Dr Francis Allen, creator of the DSM-IV

[EpicBandicoot]

I have people very close to me with mental disabilities (mainly depression and anxiety) and I know how hard it can be to realise that they are illnesses too.

Even when it's very obvious that a person is truly sick with mental illness, people just say: "you've just got to be strong and get over it". It's like saying: "oh you have a broken leg, but I'm sure you can run a mile if you're strong and just get up".

[AlexanderAndreassen]

Actually, largely I am. I quit my antidepressant a few months back by myself, and I'm doing OK. I still get short bursts of being depressed, rarely I get some anxiety symptoms, but I largely able to think myself out of them. My future is a motivation rather than some dark hole now.

[SOCRATES]

We all need to know thyself and love thyself unconditionally. This is all. Peace

[mikeyo]

Paraprofessional counsellors have been shown to be better than fully trained counsellors. They are cheaper as well. Basically a naturally empathic person beats a person trained in theory any time.

[chirpingfinch]

Why would anyone dislike this video? Anyway.. interesting to hear what the speaker shared. forwarding it in mental health circles and lay.

[DrJoySmithMaxwell]

Excellent message: Empowerment of communities for self-care & simplification of healthcare is the way of the future...7 billion is no small number!