Artificial Intelligence A cost effective solution to improve mental health care in India
According to the National Health Survey of 2015 - 16, 150 million people in India are in urgent need of mental health treatment, both short term and long term. The number of psychologists and psychiatrists per 1,00,000 of the Indian population abysmally low, merely 0.07 and 0.3 respectively. The District Mental Health Program (DMHP) , though a noble initiative, is struggling with understaffed centres and lack of funds, thus arresting its ability to undertake expansion. As with every social welfare scheme, scalability continues to be a major issue for the DMHP program. The answer to this may lie in the latest buzzword that has been doing the rounds in the country, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the stress of the Central Government in the interim budget to establish a National Artificial Intelligence Center, India has never been better placed to utilize AI to assist those suffering from mental illnesses. Anxiety, depression and schizophrenia are insidious diseases that ar...
