{"id":201843,"date":"2025-10-10T04:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201843\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T04:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:43:10","slug":"emergency-care-eludes-mental-health-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201843\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency care eludes mental health patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mental health in Bangladesh remains a topic many find difficult to discuss even in 2025, entangled in social stigma and widespread misconceptions.<\/p>\n

Issues related to mental health are often viewed through the lens of superstition, leaving patients vulnerable and struggling in silence.<\/p>\n

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On top of all that, systemic gaps and a lack of proper healthcare support — particularly emergency services — also persist, meaning even those who seek help often struggle to receive timely and adequate treatment.<\/p>\n

Take the case of Khadiza Begum, 35, from Pabna’s Bhangura upazila. After her divorce, she suffered from mental illness for four years without any medical attention.<\/p>\n

Believing she was a victim of “black magic”, her family took her to local quacks, which worsened her condition.<\/p>\n

She was only recently brought to Pabna Mental Hospital.<\/p>\n

“She wasn’t treated early because there is no emergency mental healthcare in her area, which led her to become violent,” said Dr Masud Rana, a senior psychiatrist at the hospital. “If she doesn’t improve, we’ll have to admit her.”<\/p>\n

Doctors, social workers, and patients’ relatives say the absence of an emergency response system continues to cripple mental healthcare across the country.<\/p>\n

“A vast number of patients cannot get minimum treatment early on. Consequently, their conditions often fail to improve properly,” Dr Rana added.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, social workers brought an unidentified young woman from Thakurgaon to Pabna Mental Hospital, but she was refused admission due to a lack of identification.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know how to provide her with better care now,” said Atiur Rahman Atik, one of the social workers.<\/p>\n

Hospital Superintendent Dr Ahia Kamal said hospital rules require a proper address and identification for admission. He added that the 500-bed hospital has no emergency medical service, forcing indoor patients needing urgent care to go to government hospitals.<\/p>\n

Despite having 26 of 31 sanctioned doctors, the hospital struggles to meet the growing demand.<\/p>\n

“The government plans to upgrade the hospital to 1,000 beds under a proposed project with a research centre and international-standard treatment facilities, which could improve services,” Dr Kamal said.<\/p>\n

The hospital is also facing an acute shortage of medicines. Only six types of anti-psychotic drugs and one mood stabiliser are currently available, far short of the minimum requirement.<\/p>\n

“I brought a patient from Bogura, but we couldn’t get the prescribed medicines for free,” said Md Hasan, a patient’s relative.<\/p>\n

Officials report that only six types of anti-psychotic medicines are available for indoor patients — short of the minimum required 10 — and only one mood stabiliser is in stock.<\/p>\n

“There has been no supply for the last few months, so we are treating admitted patients with the existing stock,” said a hospital official, wishing anonymity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mental health in Bangladesh remains a topic many find difficult to discuss even in 2025, entangled in social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-201843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}