New Delhi, Jan 7, 2026 — Most people struggling with mental health problems in India still aren’t getting the help they need, and the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) isn’t sugarcoating it. As they gear up for their 77th annual conference at the end of January, the warning couldn’t be clearer: India’s mental healthcare system is falling far short, and millions are slipping through the cracks.
The numbers are hard to ignore
IPS experts say about 80 to 85 percent of people with mental health conditions either never get professional help or show up so late that treatment becomes difficult. This gap is one of the widest in the world, and it doesn’t spare any group — kids, adults, families in cities, or those in rural areas. It cuts across income and background.
What’s stopping people from getting care?
Stigma still hangs heavy. Even as more people talk about mental health, old attitudes remain. Many still see depression or anxiety as a private weakness, not a real health issue. Sometimes, it’s families who shows disagreement for early warning or signs, waiting until things get out of hand. On top of that, there’s not sufficient awareness. People normally mistook the initial symptoms of mental illness for normal stress or mood swings, which means diagnosis and treatment get pushed off for months or even years.
Then there’s the issue of manpower. India just doesn’t have enough trained mental health professionals and experts, specifically outside big cities. In cities you can get any experts to deal with it, but if you live in a rural area, finding a psychiatrist is impossible, and even if by chance you get anyone, they will change large sum of amount. This shortage leaves people without options and lets problems fester until they become much harder to treat.
The fallout from all this delay is serious. When people don’t get care and treatment on time, their conditions frequently get worse. Mental illnesses convert into chronic, and people lose out on years of their lives. Families bear the burden — emotionally and financially. The risk of self-harm and suicide shoots up.
Kids and older adults have a very hard time dealing with it. IPS points out that closely 80 percent of children and teenagers with diagnosable conditions never get treated. That eventually create issues in their school life, friendships, and self-esteem. For older adults, the numbers are even starker — about 84 percent get no help at all, with their symptoms often chalked up to “just getting old.”
IPS leaders are calling for urgent deviations. They want the government to integrate mental health into basic health services, also need to train regular doctors to locate and treat common psychiatric issues, and offer better incentives to grow the mental health workforce. Public campaigns to fight stigma and boost awareness need to be everywhere. Plus, they say, India needs to spend more on mental health, a way more than expected.
These issues will be kept on front and center when psychiatrists, policymakers, and health officials gather for the ANCIPS 2026 conference in New Delhi. The goal is to come up with real, practical solutions to make mental health care more available, affordable, and acceptable for everyone.
Mental health professionals use to say the same thing that, most mental diseases can be treated, especially if you spot them early. But as long as shame and humiliation, lack of awareness, and a thin workforce keep getting in the way, millions of Indians will keep missing out on care they desperately need.
“The crisis isn’t just medical — it’s social, it’s developmental,” says IPS President Dr. Savita Malhotra. She’s urging India to treat mental health with the same seriousness as physical health, before more lives are lost to a broken system.