Badri Chapagain, the district health officer of Jumla, received a phone call as we finished dinner in his quarters last month. The hospital was summoning him to confirm the cause of death of a suspected suicide.
Next day, reports on Radio Karnali and bajar talk revealed that an ex-Maoist, Sagar, had hanged himself in the room where his wife was sleeping. Sagar’s suicide echoed the distress of the many mental patients we saw at a three-day health camp in Jumla organised by the district health office and World Vision at the request of CPN-M leaders to coincide with their Karnali exhibition. With the flag of the Maoist Republican People’s Health Movement fluttering above us, we examined cadres and locals suffering from anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other psychiatric problems.
As in the rest of the country, Jumla lacks a basic mental health infrastructure. The approximately 30 psychiatrists in Nepal are all in major cities. Few health post workers have training in mental illness. Psychiatric medications are rare outside urban centres. Most psychiatric patients....(click here to read article in full)
