More work needed to battle mental health stigma: Biocon chief

Greater engagement with government and more community-based programmes with focus on treatment interventions for psychiatric disorders would help remove the stigma attached to mental ailments, biotechnology entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw today said.
The chairperson and managing director of Biocon has joined the board of a Bengaluru-based not-for-profit organisation run by actress Deepika Padukone, who herself has battled depression and shared her story of struggle and how she coped with it.
"Mental health is an area that requires sustained effort and multi-stakeholder engagement. Kiran's experience with large, focused organisations that deliver sustained and impactful outcomes across stakeholder groups will be extremely beneficial as the scale of our activities continues to grow year on year," the 31-year-old Bollywood actress said.

At a launch of an awareness campaign on mental health last October, Padukone had said that stigma attached to mental ailments is the main reason why the society was struggling to address the problem, and the day "we together manage to tide over it and bring awareness, we will win this battle".
India is home to the largest number of mental health patients in the world with at least 50 million Indians estimated to be undergoing depression at any one point in time, according to the Indian Psychiatric Society's President Dr G Prasad Rao.
"As a member of the The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF) Board, I intend to help with greater government engagement in order to shape policy around mental health in India.

"I also believe that greater community-based programmes that focus on treatment interventions for psychiatric disorders will hopefully help to remove the associated stigma. One in five people in India will suffer from depression in their lifetime, so we must endeavour to improve the lives of these suffering millions," Mazumdar-Shaw said.