Child rights experts today stressed on the need to provide adequate mental health services for children in institutional child care in order to ensure their smooth and meaningful social inclusion.
"There is a need to understand what mental health means in relation to children in institutions. We need to stop thinking about mental health as mental illness, and instead internalize the concept that positive and good mental health is an essential component of the child's social, emotional, psychological development", Dr Kiran Modi, Founder Managing Trustee, Udayan Care, said.
"We need to demystify and simplify the whole concept of mental health among practitioners, policy makers and the general public," Modi said.
"The risk of developmental and psychological damage is particularly acute among young children under the age of four, which is a critical period for children to bond with their parents or care givers. Even in a well equipped institution with focused staff, it is unlikely that the attention they receive by the personnel could replace good parental care," said Dr Deepak Gupta, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Founder, Centre for Child & Adolescent Wellbeing (CCAW).
Also, at an older age, the lack of individualized care, which the children would get in a healthy family environment, can cause harm to their neurobiological systems, and greatly contribute to stress and lowering of psychological well being, cognitive skills, coping capacity and emotional resilience, he said.
