80% people stop therapy of mentally disabled kids

LUCKNOW: In close to 80% cases of mental disorders in children in the city, parents discontinued treatment within a year without achieving desired results, said a study released on Saturday. Supervised by Dr Sanjay Niranjan, a member of

Indian Paediatrics Association

’s UP chapter, the study followed such children for three years. To improve the situation, doctors will be trained to provide treatment using online platforms. “The study focused on mentally disabled children who were given therapy. Of these, only 12% completed the treatment. The reason was that parents were unable to complete protocols of the treatment,” said a statement regarding the study.

According to the state mental health survey report, “More than 8.9 lakh people (0.4% of the state’s population) suffer from neuro developmental disorders such as dyslexia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Due to shortage of human resource and absence of a monitoring system, the continuity of treatment and supply of medicines is hampered.” Parents had varied reasons to discontinue therapy.

“They were unsure of the end result and did not have an understanding of the treatment. Most of the treatment was focused on symptom management, hence, they were not hopeful about recovery of their child,” the report said. Economic factors also influenced the decision of withdrawing treatment. Those from affluent backgrounds preferred to get their child treated in metro cities. Several others were unable to afford the treatment.

As a next step, a system was designed to provide treatment using online platforms. Highlighting the success of this treatment, chief investigator and paediatric neuro-development expert from

Royal College of London

Dr

Rahul Bharat

said, “We have been able to normalise disability in three times the number of kids than earlier, as 65% of children continued therapy for more than a year. We plan to extend this system throughout the state by training paediatricians.”