Mysore/Mysuru: The Phase-II of the National Mental Health Survey covering six mega cities, together with Bengaluru and Hyderabad will start in February 2022. Mysuru is among the two Tier-II cities in Karnataka to be covered in the exercise.

According to National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), 21,600 individuals will be interviewed for the survey.

As many as 3,600 participants each in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Tier-II cities — Mysuru and Hubballi-Dharwad — in Karnataka will be covered.

The last time a Karnataka district was part of a National Mental Health Survey was in 2015 when the pilot study was conducted in Kolar district. That survey concluded that at any given level of time 13.1% of Indians in urban metros, 9.3% in urban non-metros and 9.2% in rural areas, suffer from one or more mental disorders.

In the current survey, apart from adults, 13 to 18-year-old adolescents will also be covered.

“The survey will cover a wide range of conditions like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar, among others by having individuals answer several questionnaires,” mentioned Dr. B.A. Aravind, Additional Professor, Department of Epidemiology, NIMHANS.

Dr. Prathima Murthy, Director, NIMHANS, said that the survey would also look at memory disturbances, behavioural addiction such as social media and gaming addiction, anxiety, children’s issues, their mental well-being and impact of COVID-19 on people.

“With current rate of urbanisation and ample evidence that urbanisation affects mental health, there is an immediate need to address mental health in cities of India,” she added.

NIMHANS, with support from Biocon Foundation, has released BUMHI (Bengaluru Urban Mental Health Initiative) module, which aims to provide individuals with adequate skills regarding mental health first-aid through development and implementation of mental health self-care and informal care programmes in the community.