Delhi families facing a mental-health crisis can seek emergency care or police help

A 60-year-old man and his friend were arrested over the alleged killing of the man’s 38-year-old son, who had schizophrenia, after the son was described as aggressive and difficult to manage.

For families facing an acute mental-health crisis, former IHBAS director Dr Nimesh Desai said police assistance can be sought if a person is unsafe to transport, instead of trying to physically move them. Psychiatrist Dr Paramjeet Singh said families can also approach a hospital emergency department, a psychiatric inpatient facility, Tele-MANAS or Delhi’s Mobile Mental Health Units.

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, allows supported admission of an unwilling adult only in specified circumstances, with clinical assessment and safeguards including risk of harm. Emergency treatment is permitted where there is a serious and immediate risk. Police must take a person believed to have mental illness and to pose a risk to themselves or others to a public health establishment for assessment within 24 hours.

Delhi has round-the-clock psychiatric emergency care, including at IHBAS, which has a 10-bed short-observation facility and more than 200 psychiatric beds. Doctors say government psychiatric emergencies are overstretched, while quality inpatient care in Delhi-NCR can be expensive. Mental illness should not be equated with violence; people with mental illness can also face neglect, abandonment and inappropriate care.