Rights-Based Promise and Ground Realities: A Narrative Review of India’s Mental Healthcare Act, 2017

Mental health has been among the least prioritized sectors of the healthcare system in India despite the adoption of the Mental Healthcare Act (MHA), 2017, that aimed to protect the rights of patients, guaranteeing autonomy and encouraging care provision on a community level. This paper is a critical analysis of the obstacles of implementing MHA 2017 by contextualizing them in the social, economic, and healthcare context of India. Results suggest a systematic limitation in terms of absence of systematic reviews pertaining to the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), infrequent & unproductive funding, shortage of professionals in mental health, inadequate rural coverage, ineffective budgetary allocations, as well as ineffective follow-ups as part of 72-hour emergency care provision. Mental illness is also increased by the factors of context, including stress at work, job loss, and stigma, and social pressures. The paper goes on to review the existing literature in mentality research in the teenager and workplace and gap in non-communicable disease related approaches to treatments and discuss such governmental programs as the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), Telepsychiatry Mission and Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK). Among the suggestions is to periodically review programmes, to fund them sustainably, mental health to be incorporated into primary healthcare, mental health to be prioritized at workplace and massive awareness should be postulates. The author concludes that MHA 2017 is a progressive rights-based framework, but it suffers due to its structural, financial, and operational constraints which require critical policy considerations.