S. M. Vijayanand, former Kerala Chief Secretary, on Tuesday underlined the need for civil society organisations to develop protocols for rehabilitating persons with severe and persistent mental disorders.
He said that such organisations should also coordinate with government agencies and ensure that formal and informal channels of communication are maintained with officials to set right issues.
He was speaking at the second International Conference on Mental Health and Inclusive Development organised by the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health and Tata Institute of Social Sciences focussing on inclusive living options for persons with severe and persistent mental disorders.
Home Again model
Kerala has adopted The Banyan’s Home Again model where over 90 persons with mental illnesses have been moved out of mental health institutions to houses in the last one-and-a-half years.
In Tamil Nadu too over 200 such persons have been rehabilitated by the non-governmental organisation.
Manu Arora, Assistant professor at the Government Psychiatry Diseases Hospital at Jammu, said that for a population of 55 lakh, there were only around 15 psychiatrists.
Huge gap in services
“There is a huge gap in terms of services that are provided, availability of resources and also for after care of such persons.” he said.
Vandana Gopikumar, co-founder of The Banyan and The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, said that the Home Again model they had developed where persons with severe and persistent mental disorders were provided housing and support services had many advantages including bringing down the cost of maintaining such persons and decrease in disability levels.