1. There is no health without mental health
Dr. Santosh K. Chaturvedi, MD, FRCPE, FRCPsych
Dean & Senior Professor of Psychiatry
Head, Department of Mental Health Education
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, India

2. Themes Parliamentarians and mental health
How MP's offices are able to help people with mental health issues?
Work place mental health, for MPs
Mental health in medical disorders
Well being
Psycho politics !!

4. Aims
Mental health, good or bad, is a part of everyone’s life, including people working in Parliament.
How well do MPs and their staff understand mental health?
What impact does working in Parliament have on an individual’s wellbeing?
How many people in Parliament have direct or indirect experience of mental health problems?
Why is it still so difficult for politicians to talk openly about their own experiences of mental ill health? And how would things change for the better if they did?

5. Key findings
94% had friends or family who had experienced a mental health problem. This is significantly higher than the 63% of the general public who say that they knew someone who had experienced a mental health problem.
One in five MPs had some personal experience of a mental health problem.
Overall this rose to 27% of those who responded: MPs (19%), and just under half of the staff (45%).
68% (two out of three MPs who responded to this question) believed the fact that the MPs will automatically lose their seat if sectioned under the Mental Heath Act is wrong.

6. Findings
One in three MPs & Parliamentary staff saw work-based stigma and a hostile reaction from the media and general population as barriers to openness about mental health issues.
MPs, and Parliamentary staff were in favour of increasing awareness of mental health issues and of public figures speaking out about their experiences (75%), but felt less able to do so themselves.
Only 17% had received mental health awareness training and few MPs understood their responsibilities under the Mental health & Disability Acts.

7. Interest in mental health
88% of MPs said they had voted on mental health-related bills in Parliament.
83% of MPs said they had supported campaigns on mental health issues.
56% of MPs said they had raised mental health issues in Parliament;
12% of MPs said they had done paid work relating to mental health outside Parliament, including work as an approved social worker, and a chair of the Mental Health Foundation Research Committee.

8. Personal experience of mental health problems
27% said that they had either been concerned about their own mental health or had actively sought help for a mental health problem.
Almost one in five MPs said that they had personal experience of a mental health problem.

9. Perceptions of how common mental health problems are
MPs have a realistic grasp of the percentage of the population who will suffer form some sort of mental health illness in their lifetime:
It has been estimated that one in four people will experience mental health problems at some point in their lives
Every session, parliamentary questions are sent to NIMHANS.

10. Mental health awareness training
Only 17% of MPs, said they had had any mental health awareness training.
However, 60% of MPs, and 64% of staff said they would find such training useful.
Of MPs, and staff who answered our question on employing someone with a mental health problem, a significant proportion did not know if they had or not.

11. Stress of being MP
86% of MPs, and 82% of staff said their job was stressful.
The fear that a mental health problem would be perceived to compromise their ability was a strong contributing factor to stress among Parliamentarians.
45% of MPs, and 58 per cent of staff said they would not feel comfortable with other people at work knowing about any mental health problems they might have.
The reasons given included stigma, fear of being seen as weak or inefficient, potential career damage, and a hostile media.
Some MPs, and staff, reported that mental illness is seen as a weakness, by them or by employers.

12. Risk of being open about mental health problems
Negative media coverage
Political opportunism by opposition politicians and own colleagues
Fear of being seen as weak or incompetent
The negative health consequences of having to deal with a mental health problem while under the public glare.

13. Stress for MPs
Members of Parliament go through various challenges and stresses in their work and lives.
They deal with numerous pressures.
Appropriate help is available to them for their physical and medical health.
However, if there is enough help for them to deal with the stresses, mental health issues, memory problems, and psychosocial problems, is not known. 

14. Our plan for workshops
To enhance awareness about mental health problems in the country, stigma related to mental illness, and policies related to the management of mental health problems by Mental health awareness training
To sensitise, understand, debate and discuss, ways to deal with mental health issues specific to our country.
Coping with stress in the life and work of parliamentarians and legislators.

16. Bio-psycho-social model of mental health problems
Psychological
Emotional disturbances
Cognitions
Psychopathology
Biological
Genetics
Physiological disturbances
Bodily distress
Social
Stress
Culture
Reinforcers
Behavioral
Sick role

17. How to know if you are stressed out?
Do you enjoy things you enjoyed?
Do you have difficulty sleeping?
Are you able to relax, when you want to ?
Do you often have headache, backache, feeling of tiredness?
Do you find difficulty in concentrating or remembering?
Do you need to smoke or have a drink to deal with stress?
Do you feel you are being watched?
Do you have medical illness, like diabetes, BP or arthritis?

18. Mental health in medical illness
Depression in diabetes; 20 to 40%
More complications
Poor treatment compliance
Outcome of diabetes is poorer.
Outcome of depression is poorer
Same situation with Hypertension
Pain worse in arthritis

19. In Conclusion :
Well being of Parliamentarians is crucial for their role in the country & society
Coping with numerous, unexpected and expected, unpredictable stresses is essential.
The psycho politics of mental health issues is complex
Medical illness co exist with mental health problems, hence, due care is needed.
There is no health without mental health