Indian Journal of Health Social Work
DIFFERENCES IN MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES UTILISATION ACROSS CASTE AND GENDER: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY FROM A TERTIARY-CARE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE IN INDIA
Hariom Pachori1, Ranjan Kumar Sahoo2, B. Das3, Avinash Sharma4, Dipanjan Bhattacharjee5
1Statistician, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand , 2Associate Professor of Statistics & Head of Department, School of Statistics, Sambalpur Odisha, 3Director, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand,4Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 5Associate Professor of PSW, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand
Correspondence: Ranjan Kumar Sahoo, e-mail id: ranjansahoostatistics@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Background: The Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi is an apex mental health care institute situated in the Jharkhand state of the Republic of India. This institute functions under the aegis of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. In India, mental health service utilization is still not symmetrical across all sections of society. Despite significant progress in the field of public health as well as mental health many people tend to refrain from availing scientific mental health services and treatment modes. There are observable differences in utilisation of tertiary mental health services amongst people of different castes, gender and socio-economic backgrounds. Aim: To see the differences in mental health services utilisation across caste and gender. Method: This study was retrospective in nature. This study was based on a retrospective analysis of routinely recorded patients’ related clinical data collected during 2012 and 2017. Conclusion: In the present study, it was noted that, within the span of 05 years, there was more than 19.68% increase in patients’ registration at OPD level. In the present study, it was noted that, in case of new as well as follow-up cases, males have always constituted an overwhelming majority. In the context of new cases (patients coming to the Institute for the first time), the number of male patients almost doubled during 2012 to 2017 and at the time of follow-up, this difference was seen to have further increased by nearly 2½ times.
Keywords: Mental Health, Gender difference, Services utilisation.
