WION Health Pulse: Experts flag mental health gap, say awareness and support systems are key | Health News | Zee News

The WION Health Summit at Taj, New Delhi, gathered healthcare voices from across the world, but one of its most urgent sessions had little to do with technology or hospitals in the traditional sense. The second session, Mental Health – The Invisible Pandemic, moderated by WION’s Shreya Upadhyaya, went somewhere harder. The kind of conversation that doesn’t wrap up neatly, because the problem doesn’t either.

According to Dr Jitendra Nagpal, psychiatrist, mental health advocate, life-skills educator, and Senior Consultant at Moolchand Medcity’s Institute of Mental Health & Life Skills Promotion, “Demystify and destigmatise the mind about mental health. Mental health is often ignored among the elderly. People who are already suffering should ensure to reach out for help. Help is there for everyone. A lot of family members are not aware of where to reach out.”

He also added, “How many families are still unaware of where to access mental health services and support systems, stressing that it remains widely misunderstood and often neglected, especially among the elderly.”

Dr Nagpal says, “There is a need to decentralise as well, which the government is doing splendidly. Even at the grassroots level- at anganwadi level, the government has modules for mental health.”

The session broadened from there. Digital overload. Lifestyle pressure. The particular kind of exhaustion that modern urban living stacks onto people slowly, steadily, until it isn’t slow or steady anymore. These aren’t fringe concerns. They’re reshaping the mental health burden in ways that demand early intervention, not crisis response after the fact.

What the session kept returning to was this: stigma reduction, emotional resilience, and accessible support systems aren’t optional additions to healthcare; they’re the foundation. Families need to know where to turn. Individuals need environments that don’t punish them for struggling. The conversation happening at this summit, in other words, is one that can’t afford to stay inside a conference room.