India’s population count, particularly for the mentally affected and the ill patients, are about 70 million in number, with only about 4000 psychiatrists and who are concentrated more on the developed areas and cities of the nation. In the worldwide count of the major issue of suicide, about 17%, that is, 1, 35,000 people are the Indian residents. Since these critical statistics do exist for the mental health of our nation, new policies, laws and legislation are brought up to ensure care and treatment for the mentally ill patients. One significant policy that came into force on October 10th 2014
…Tag: Health
This article was first published in Policies for Equitable Access to Health (PEAH) but it is still very relevant across global health. http://www.peah.it/2015/12/treating-the-silent-epidemic-health-literacy-for-all/
Background
Health literacy, defined as the ability to seek, process and apply health related information and knowledge is an essential public health investment. My twenty seven years of clinical, management and entrepreneurial journey as a health advocacy communications consultant in India and abroad has convinced me that healthcare literacy across all stakeholders is an essential, scalable, universal, valuable product-service.
Since health education is the base of the modern healthcare pyramid, eradicating the silent public health epidemic of health illiteracy is
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