Mental health --Missing by a big margin
During the 26 minute 6th sitting of the 248th session of the Senate on May 16, among the other three resolutions introduced was one on mental health -- to regulate Mental Health Act in three provinces other than Balochistan. But for reasons unknown, it got only a passing mention in one leading English daily, others seem to have missed the news.
Many Pakistanis display signs of trauma from the troubles that grip their country - violence, poverty, unemployment, food scarcity and more. According to the World Health Organisation, 10 per cent of population suffers various forms of mental illness. However, the number of psychiatric/psychological experts treating the mentally ill is dismally low, roughly one per half million people.
Legal protection for the mentally ill has remained a challenge in Pakistan. Before the 18th constitutional amendment consigned mental health to provinces in 2010, the Mental Health Act 2001, and prior to it the Lunacy Act 1912 covered the area. In 2013, Sindh passed its own bill. Punjab followed suit a year later.
Introducing and also amending laws on mental health is indeed desired if negative attitudes about this menace are to change. But all of the above numbers and lawmaking is for record sake alone. Beyond it is a gaping hole waiting to be plugged collectively by the lawmakers, policy implementers and media. It is known that despite years of campaigning, the media coverage of the issue is limited to only Oct 10, designated as the international day for mentally ill. On other days of the year, the issue is lost and forgotten. The natural question to ask is: how many times do mediapersons approach the disturbed souls to hear their side of the story? Hardly.
Clearly, the magnitude of this condition shows there is no room for complacency. Coverage of mental health is a largely ignored area that warrants media attention and action, and also rethinking and refining the way the issue is reported. Editors and journalists have a significant role to play in the type of coverage of mental illness. They must also refrain from negative stereotyping of the mentally ill, which is reflected in the language commonly used, "pagal hai", "charya hai", "he’s mad", "pycho hao"… This makes the recovery for some ill all the more hard.
-- Alefia T. Hussain
Drug addiction --Addicted but ignored
Last year, anti narcotics force told the Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control that around seven million people in Pakistan were drug addicts and as many as 700 people die every day in the country due to drug-related complications.
According to European Union’s report last year, drug addiction and drug trafficking is a serious matter for Pakistan. Pakistan is also considered one of the countries having the highest number of heroin addicts. Despite that, the issue of drug addiction and trafficking is still under reported in Pakistan.
A big portion of the coverage of drug abuse is based on the news of recovery of drugs and heroin by people trying to smuggle it, highlighting efforts of Anti Narcotics Force’s administrative activities.
What is not reported on is drug addicts’ rehabilitation centres and focus on organisations involved in controlling drug trafficking, etc. There is hardly any follow up on the arrest of a smuggler or peddler. There is little or no reporting on the recovered drugs.
Life of drug addicts is also under-reported. The biggest reason is state’s neglect to make it a priority. Media usually follows government’s priorities. There are few or no reports on mafias dealing with drugs.
-- Waqar Gillani
Health--Indepth and humane coverage
We all know Pakistan spends less on education and health. We know that defence budget and debt-servicing eat up most of our budget and that there is precious little left.
The media must be credited for hammering these facts about health into people’s minds to the extent that they have reconciled with their state, stopped asking questions of the governments for depriving them of their rights and, where they have the means, switched to private caregivers.
The number of human lives lost in any incident determines its newsworthiness. Reporting on health has remained focused on deaths, whether in Thar or big metropolises like Karachi or Lahore. Like most other media coverage, health too is an urban-centric issue.
The electronic media must share the blame for sensationalising news and raising the voice of a perceived ‘victim’ instead of taking a balanced view of things. This alone has made media’s access to hospitals more difficult than before.
It is the state of health facilities in the public sector that need immediate attention. There has to be an equal focus on Basic Health Units that are so under-provided that patients are pushed to bigger hospitals in cities, putting greater pressure on them. Where cities are not close by, patients die on their way to hospitals.
The quality debate must be initiated for health professionals, services delivered and standards of pathology. We do not read or hear properly-done stories of incompetence and corruption that mar the health sector nor of the budgetary allocation that does not even get utilised.
Pakistan has the worst indicators in terms of foetal, infant and maternal mortality and is finding it impossible to eradicate polio. A more competent lady health workers’ programme could turn things around. But these facts are not being reported the way they should be.
Given the lack of interest and facilities, the services actually being provided at the public hospitals seem like a miracle. The doctors and the paramedic staff must be credited for this; we do need some positive stories on them.
Statistics in health, something the media has generously relied on, have not impacted the policy. What is perhaps required is more in-depth and humane coverage. Private health is a luxury and matter of choice, and must not substitute for an efficient public health system under any condition.
-- Farah Zia