Audit of requests for disability certification of adults received at a tertiary care general hospital psychiatry unit

Abstract

Background: Persons with disability (PwD) are entitled to certain benefits from the State on grounds of being disabled. With the recent enactment of the Rights of PwD Act, 2016, and increased efforts to provide assistance to persons with certifiable disabilities, data pertaining to disability requests can be useful to understand the way in which services are utilized.

Materials and methods: This study is an audit of the disability certificates issued to all subjects with age ≥18 years between 2016 and 2019 at a tertiary care general hospital psychiatry unit, and discusses the pattern and profile of the certificates.

Results: A total of 356 patients were issued disability certificates (2016-2019). The mean age of the subjects was 32.8 (±11.2) years and about 30% of them were females. Intellectual disability (58.3%) was the most common diagnosis, followed by schizophrenia and related disorders (31%), while all other disorders constituted a smaller proportion (11%) of the sample. About 60% of the subjects had moderate disability, 37.4% had severe disability, and 1.7% had profound disability.

Conclusion: A large majority of the certificates were issued to subjects with intellectual disability. Patients with severe mental illnesses are probably not accessing the disability benefits optimally. This audit also points to under-representation of women as well as an overall underutilization of services by individuals with mental disability.

Keywords: Certificates; India; disability; mental disorders.

Figure 1

Frequency of diagnosis in disability certificates over 4-year period (2016–2019)