Public interaction programs

Mental health is an indicator of the social life of a population. The rising level of morbidity and mortality is a sign of social as well as individual malaise. Mental health and mental illness are largely ignored or neglected, resulting in increasing burden of mental disorders in the community and a widening of “treatment gap". This is mainly because of a community's perception and attached social stigma.

Awareness of the community about symptoms/signs of mental illness today is limited to symptoms that manifest in severe mental illness or in later stage of the illness. The reason could be either lack of awareness of participants about other common symptoms like sense of hopelessness, aloofness, and anxiety or may be that these symptoms are too common to be recognised as abnormal.