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The legislative and political contexts surrounding dementia care in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2008

BIANCA R. BRIJNATH
BIANCA R. BRIJNATH*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Australia.
*
Address for correspondence: Bianca Brijnath, Social Sciences and Health Research Unit, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University (Caulfield Campus), 900 Dandenong Road, Victoria 3145, Australia. Email: bianca.brijnath@med.monash.edu.au
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Abstract

Currently there is no specific policy on dementia care in India. Rather, the responsibility for care for people with dementia is not clearly articulated and formal care services straddle mental health and aged care. The result is that much care is placed upon individual families. This paper critically reviews Indian legislative and policy documents on this field of care, namely, the Mental Health Act 1987, the National Mental Health Programme, the National Policy on Older Persons and the Senior Citizen's Act 2007. The invisibility of dementia care in public policy translates into the absence of adequate treatment facilities and mental health staff, and leaves informal care-giving unsupported. This gap is replicated in mental health and dementia-care research and literature in India, with little being known about how family carers respond to the experiences of care-giving, manage the stigma, and access support. As India, like other middle-income and low-income countries, is experiencing an increase in its older population, more research is needed to develop the epidemiological, medical and anthropological understanding of ageing, dementia and care. This knowledge is vital to understanding the cultural context of the disease and must also be incorporated into public health policy if there is to be effective management of the rising need for personal care.

Keywords

Indiadementiacarepolicymental healthageing
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 28 , Issue 7 , October 2008 , pp. 913 - 934
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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