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MADE-IN-GOA BOOK TELLS A CRAZY WORLD HOW TO STAY SANE By Frederick Noronha PANJIM, March 16: Should you worry about mental illness? Why do people sometimes want to end their lives? What is a dyslexic handwriting? These complex questions have simple answers, if you know where to look. Goa-based psychiatrist Dr Vikram Patel has just made this task easier, by publishing a 266-page book called 'Where There Is No Psychiatrist'. Published in 2003 by Gaskell -- an imprint of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK -- the book also answers other questions that often intrigue. For instance: What's depression or anxiety? Is there some problem with a child who is developing slowly? Why is violence and rape a health issue? Patel, founding member of the Sangath Society that works out of Porvorim, says the book is currently available only in its UK edition. But a more affordable Indian edition could possibly get published. It aims to act as a counterpart to the widely-noticed 1977 book 'Where There Is No Doctor' by David Werner, a schoolteacher who went to the mountains of Mexico as an artist to draw the fauna and found people there denied of any form of scientific healthcare. Werner encouraged the writing of another popular book, 'Where There Is No Dentist'. "The needs of those with mental health problems were more difficult and up to now have been largely unmet. This need has now been magnificiently filled by Vikram Patel's Where There Is No Psychiatrist," says the forward to the book illustrated by Bal Bhavan artist Wilson D'Souza. This book has been published with the support of Teaching-aids At Low Cost, a British non-profit organisation that distributes low-cost health books, slides and teaching equipment to the Third World countries. After giving the reader a basic understanding of mentall illness, it goes on to describe over 30 clinical problems associated with mental illness and uses a "problem-solving" approach to guide readers through assessment and management. In an interview, Patel said the intention of the book was "to make mental health issues more accessible to general and community health workers who, in any case, are the main providers of care for people with mental health problems in the world, and especially so in developing countries". He says he wanted to reduce the complicated language and jargon of psychiatry into the 'simple home truths' which can be communicated to non-specialists. "In many senses, the book -- which took four years from conception to publication -- is aimed to empower the general health worker to take on mental health problems without fear or ignorance," argues Patel. So far, Patel says, the response has been "very positive". One of the world's largest book distributors of health books to developing countries (Teaching-aids At Low Cost) has placed the book on its 2003 catalogue and the book is moving well. Initial feedback from colleagues in India has been very positive too, says the author. David Werner, the writer of the Where There Is No Doctor classic, wrote "In the community-based health and rehabilitation programs I have worked with over the last 30 years, I have often felt the dire need for an easy to understand handbook on how to deal with common (and even not so common) mental disorders. "or years, my colleagues and I have urged mental health practitioners to write such a handbook. Now, at last, that need has been magnificently filled, with Dr. Vikram Patel's very comprehensive yet remarkably user-friendly book... How I wish had had this book years before!" "But, of course, the jury is still out and there is some way to go before we know the real response," Patel said. But the publishers are negotiating for a Spanish edition. Writing it was not a breeze. "I have written many scientific papers and chapters, but all my work has been targeted to an academic audience. This is the first time I have written something for a community health audience and the most difficult task was to make my way of communicating simpler and clearer," says Patel, who is also a senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "In a world where mental health problems are gaining considerable significance, and where mental health specialists are very few and far between, I see this book as one of the tools to meet the mental health needs of communities," says its author. This could also be the first book of its kind. Says he: "The really unique thing about this book is that it is, in virtually all respects, a Goan book. It was written by me in Goa, the contents of the book include over 150 illustrations all done by Wilson D'Souza from Bal Bhavan and the cover was drawn by Nicky Thomas from Baga." Patel can be contacted via email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
