Papers by Prabhakar S Rao
Mental health refers to inner harmony of the individual whereas the social health refers to the e... more Mental health refers to inner harmony of the individual whereas the social health refers to the external harmony of an individual, the way one adjusts to residential and financial matters. The mental health component of health looks at how one solves his/her internal conflicts, the level of self-esteem, needs, problems, goals and ability to strike a balance between rationality and emotionality. Just like any other phenomenon, the mental health also should take into account the social constructs that surrounds it. If we examine the history of mental health and illnesses in India, mental health form its very beginning viewed as incurable as it is disease inherited idiosyncrasy or family 'curse', or a lifelong affliction with near supernatural origins. As a result, treatment falls beyond the realms of science and rationality. This is one of the major factors in influencing our attitude, perception and understanding of mental health and illnesses. Even today, we are unable to challenge these false beliefs, myths and this is one of our greatest drawbacks in the achievement of our goals about mental health. Mentally ill have fundamental / human right to receive mental health care and to humane living conditions in the mental hospitals. The serious mentally ill are a special group with disabilities and they are entitled to all those human and fundamental rights which are guaranteed to each and every citizen by the constitution of India, The fundamental right to life and liberty as interpreted by the Supreme Court of India in number of landmark cases includes the right to live with human dignity in accordance with the article 21 of the constitution of India. Declaration Of Hawaii 1992 by General Assembly of World Psychiatric association also talks about the patients right to treatment and patients consent for treatment. It also talks of treatment under special circumstances, where if the patient does not have judgement into his condition then treatment is to be administered in his best interest. As soon as the conditions for compulsory treatment are no longer applicable, psychiatrist should obtain voluntary consent and treat the patient. A few centuries ago mental patients were locked up in 'madhouses' and thereafter they were given shelter in mental asylums away from the harassment of the society that neither understand nor tolerate their behavior. After some decadesmental hospital appeared on the scene to treat mentally ill patients. Today we have 'mental health institutes' which provide a variety of services like care, treatment and rehabilitation of mentally ill and also programmes for prevention and promotion of mental health. But all is not well with the state of affairs in the field of mental health as the transition was never completed satisfactorily there is a strong lobby of medical professionals and vested interests that mental illness requires a technical judgement by medically qualified persons only. This politicization of medical profession has mystified the field of health care and promotion and there is strong need to question it as health neither a technical domain of a few experts nor-. A wider vista of individuals, groups and institutions need to be able to contribute towards the well-being of individuals, families and communities. Another very important issue related to the mental health is its legal aspects. Many provisions of the outdated Indian Lunacy Act 1912 like custodial care and segregation
Abstract: Emotions can be biologically born, but socio-culturally nurtured.Emotions are more than... more Abstract: Emotions can be biologically born, but socio-culturally nurtured.Emotions are more than our personal reactions their antecedents. They play important social and political roles and are fundamental to identity and community attachments rather than simple biological bases. Suppression of emotions affects mental health. Emotions are formed and structured within particular social and cultural environment. The cultural organization of emotion development implied here is related to the prevailing cultural model of self-construal—the independent or the interdependent self.
One of the most deceptive aspects of the ego is that it generates powerful emotional reactions, t... more One of the most deceptive aspects of the ego is that it generates powerful emotional reactions, the trail of emotional reactions that ego leaves behind are anger at a loved one, a need to be right, a feeling of insecurity in certain situations, feelings of unexplained jealousy, the need to impress someone, and so on. Conflictual behavior at workplace not only impacts those who are involved in the conflict but also others in the work place. Self-esteem and ego are the two important aspects that effect our personal relationships, By just become aware of ego, it will dissipate soon and once you bring it into the light of consciousness, it will be unable to 'survive " People with low self-esteem are more socially anxious and shy which can make it difficult to form close relationships with others. The interplay between self-esteem and ego was analyzed and their effect on our day-today interactions and relationships was studied in this article. At the most fundamental psychological level, there are three kinds of people one who inflate and encourage, or are more like a human vortex, a steady drain on emotional resources, courage-builder or a spirit-sucker whom colleagues view as a burst of upbeat energy or a vitality-vampire, sucking the positive lifeblood out of co-workers or an ego-booster or an ego-buster. If Words and actions of a person contribute to the overall energy and happiness in himself and the lives of co-workers around him, he'll make a radical decision to positively reframe his outlook, speech and actions. Ego –busters' vs. ego boosters': Ego busters are destructive communication patterns and ego boosters are constructive communication patterns. The following are some of the characteristics of ego busters and how we can help those who use these destructive communication patterns, and can change these behaviors in our own speech.
One of the main things impacted by our self-concept and our self-esteem is our communication. Sel... more One of the main things impacted by our self-concept and our self-esteem is our communication. Self-concept, self-image, self-esteem and self-efficacy are major factors in the way we communicate. Whether we are introverts or extroverts that can be seen in the way we communicate with others. Communication becomes smooth when we become part of it. People with high self-esteem are confident, responsible, committed to goals, genuine and forgiving. An artificially inflated self-esteem is an effort to appear to have high self-esteem. However, such individuals don't typically show the characteristics of people with high self-esteem. Whereas people with low self-esteem are insecure, unhappy and impatient, but people artificially inflated self-esteem try to appear to have high self-esteem in an effort to compensate their deficiency. There are certain ways improve one's self-esteem. Development of a relationship is closely related to systematic self-disclosure which again another form of interpersonal communication. General personality traits such as quietness, shyness, and reticence frequently precipitate Communication Apprehension. Prevention and treatment methods of communication apprehension are now available. The way we communicate is greatly influenced by our self-concept especially self-esteem. Only because of this influence some of us introvert, some others are extroverts and still some others are mixture of both. If somebody focuses on his or her sense of humor in his/her talks, he will be seen as a funny person by all around him whether or not he himself aware of it. Our emotional needs and desires dictate our communication. If a person perceives himself as an introvert, but he or she doesn't like to be attributed so as it negatively affect his /her self-esteem and he may really want to be a funny person, he reassures himself again and again having a great sense of humor and he goes on to great lengths and breadths to tell jokes and try to amuse others.
The present study was aimed to compare stigma between mental disorders and other stigmatized dise... more The present study was aimed to compare stigma between mental disorders and other stigmatized diseases like Leprosy TB, STD and HIV/AIDS etc., and an effort was made to find commonalities and differences among stigma related aspects of these diseases. An effort was also made to develop some common platforms to address for elimination of stigma. Since the concept and origin of stigma varies from one disease to another, an understanding of cause of stigma is essential to formulate effective strategies to formulate for its reduction/ elimination. Further research need to be made for more insights. Stigma is usually considered as 'spoilt identity' (1) which is true of any stigmatized disease e.g., mental illness, leprosy, TB and STD & HIV/AIDS. Over the centuries mental illness has been looked upon as shameful, dangerous and incurable – something to be hidden due to high degree of stigma against the people suffering from mental diseases. This stigma severely affected in several ways in obtaining services, recovery, the type of treatment and support they receive, as well as their acceptance in the society. The fear of violence from mentally ill is said to be the main reason for this stigma. Mental asylums in the medieval ages were built to protect the community from the crazy, but not to treat them as normal individuals as their function was mainly custodial rather than curative. A more wider and current definition of mental illness refers to the range of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors that interfere with interpersonal relationships as well as functions required for daily work, at home, and in school (2). Schizophrenia may evoke images of violence and inability to care for oneself. Depression may invoke thoughts of indifference and induce substance abuse. Culturally it is normative behavior to perceive people with mental illness as dangerous and violent. This impact their employment opportunities; limitations on finding an adequate shelter; barriers to obtaining treatment services, including negative attitudes of mental health professionals; and the role of the media in perpetuating the negative image of mental illness. Protest, education and contact are three areas of involvement that have been suggested by researchers to reduce stigma against people with mental illness (3). In India, many villagers still believe that the cause of mental illness is wrath of evil spirits and the so-called therapy, conducted by witch doctors or family members include chaining up the mentally ill, chanting spells, poking them with pins, or beating them "to force the spirits out (4). Ironically, there are fewer stigmatizing attitudes towards the mentally ill amongst rural compared to urban community dwellers in India (5). Women and girls in India put into these institutions by their families or police and 'Treated Worse than Animals' with forced confinement physical, sexual and violent abuses against (16) The stigma surrounding people with severe mental illness
A study conducted among beggars in and around Aska, Orissa, revealed 41 of them to be leprosy pat... more A study conducted among beggars in and around Aska, Orissa, revealed 41 of them to be leprosy patients. almost all had taken treatment and released from control.only 2 of them were mildly positive in their skin smear for AFB. All of them have disabilities and deformities. It is evident that at least in this area, beggar leprosy patients cannot be contributing to the transmission of the disease. their treatment regularity record was also very good.
Health Educators working to promote health behaviors have realized that mere quantitative researc... more Health Educators working to promote health behaviors have realized that mere quantitative research surveys alone not necessarily provide all of the data inputs that are needed to develop effective communication strategies. Therefore, qualitative methods such as focus groups and in-depth interviews, besides less precise, but useful semi-quantitative approaches, such as intercept surveys, have emerged as part of their research gamut. In an ideal Health Education/IEC program, researchers use both quantitative and qualitative data to provide a more complete picture of the issue being addressed, the target audience and the effectiveness of the program itself. The purpose of this paper is to look at how these two different research approaches can be integrated to inform the development of an effective social marketing program. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: A Comparison An analysis of the quantitative and qualitative research methods will help to identify their strengths and weaknesses and how their different but opposite approaches can complement each other. In most cases, researchers fall into one of the two camps-either relying exclusively upon "objective" survey questionnaires and statistical analyses and not so warm and well defined qualitative methods, or using only qualitative methodologies, rejecting the quantitative approach as decontextualizing human behavior. However, health communication researchers recognize that each approach has its own positive attributes, and that combining different methods can result in gaining the best of both research worlds. Quantitative research uses methods adopted from the physical sciences that are designed to ensure objectivity, generalizability and reliability. These techniques cover the ways research participants are selected randomly from the study population in an unbiased manner, the standardized questionnaire or intervention they receive and the statistical methods used to test predetermined hypotheses regarding the relationships between specific variables. The researcher is considered external to the actual research, and results are expected to be replicable no matter who conducts the research (1). The strengths of the quantitative methods are that its methods produce quantifiable, reliable data that are usually generalizable to some larger population. Quantitative measures are often most appropriate for conducting needs assessments (diagnostic studies) or for evaluations comparing outcomes with baseline data. This model breaks down when the phenomenon under study is difficult to measure or quantify. The greatest weakness of the quantitative approach is that it decontextualizes human behavior in a way that removes the event from its real world setting and ignores the effects of variables that have not been included in the model.Quantitative methods
This article utilizes the National Family Health Survey-3 data to present an empirical relationsh... more This article utilizes the National Family Health Survey-3 data to present an empirical relationship between social inequalities and health status in the Indian context. There is a direct relationship between health indices and Socioeconomic status. There is also a direct relationship between health indices and educational status of population in general and women in particular. An inverse relationship exists between fertility, death, life expectancy at birth infant mortality, under five child morality rates and economic prosperity. Social stratifies like caste; religion and gender play a major role in determining health status of the people. In terms of regional inequalities, the western and southern States enjoy better health indices due to high economic and low population growth, the northern and eastern States lag behind with high population and slow economic growth. In other words, when the gravity of 'social gradient of health' spurts towards south-westerly direction it plunged into opposite direction. Differences in health status also observed among the same social groups across the reasons. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative strengths of economic and social status in determining the health status of people in India.
Storytelling is one approach of many that can make it more likely that someone will take action. ... more Storytelling is one approach of many that can make it more likely that someone will take action. It can happen face-to-face, though books, videos, audio, comics and any of the other myriad ways people communicate with each other. When you combine different media, and tell stories from alternate points of view, it gets even more interesting. Storytelling is a powerful tool to bring about health and social change, when it is combined with proven behavior change models-social marketing and entertainment education principles, it has the potential of radical transformation of social norms with the help of transmedia approach i.e., using different platforms for telling different parts of a story rather than the same story told over and over again via various media. Social media has offered lot of scope and opportunity to incorporate story telling in public health education. Storytelling has been around since cavemen sat around the fire telling each other about the mammoth that got away. Story telling is imbibed in our culture and inherited from our ancient forefathers to learn and propagate knowledge. Story telling has its roots in hymns, poetry, songs and drama and hence entertainment to instill lasting memory. Bhagwadgita, the repository of Hindu way of life has its origin in the word 'gitam' which means song in Sanskrit. These songs have different forms according to their comprehension and understanding by different people with different intellectual capacities. For advanced scholars (vidvans) they are hymns (slokas), for a person with moderate expertise they are poetry with proper rhyme and rhythm and rules of grammar, for ordinary people they are lokgeet (local songs). In the ancient times, when there was no record of ideas on paper, important truths in daily walks of life were composed in hymns, mantras and propagated by word of mouth from one generation to other. These hymns again translated into poetry with proper rhyme and rhythm. The poetry ultimately translated into folk songs in different dialects for common man usage. In this way the complex idea of vidvans was rolled out to the common man in a most simplified manner. The same pattern can be traced to the tenants in the bible translated from hymns to fairy tales in the
Social media besides being educative role, it increases connections and communications. If used p... more Social media besides being educative role, it increases connections and communications. If used properly, it also builds bridges over barriers and strengthens relationships. It encourages community participation and boosts ones confidence. Blogging can be therapeutic for who are confused, down, or need to vent frustrations. It unleashes one's own potential and helps to find an identity for his/her talent. Negative correlates of social media include, behavioural addiction, the decrease in real life social community participation and academic achievement, as well as relationship problems. Stalking and cyber bullying, identity theft, victimization to rumours, missing out attitude, aggressive and callous behavior and host of other mental and social abnormalities are also the result of excessive use of social media. Due to face book, mobile and tv, we are forgetting our basic values and culture, which leads to families breaking up. The good and bad affects of social media in the Indian context have been outlined in this article with the help of literatures, opinion of the exerts, news bits and content from blogs etc. In recent days, we witness a rising number of adolescents becoming the victims of behavioural changes and when we go through their history over a period of time, we learn that it is owing to the overuse of social media and most of them have internet addiction (1) There are growing news reports that the teenagers who engage in social media during the late night could be damaging their sleep and increasing their risk of anxiety and depression. Girls, more than boys seek comfort on social media when they are worried. Teens are so emotionally invested in social media that a fifth of secondary school pupil will wake up at night and log on(2). The report found that there was a " clear association " between longer time spent on social websites and the incidence of mental health problems. As per children wellbeing study also there is clear association between number of hours a child spent on social networking sites and children " difficulties score "-the official measure for the prevalence of mental health issues in children(3)
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Papers by Prabhakar S Rao