Noida: In quarantine, mental health getting overlooked?

TNN | Updated: Apr 14, 2020, 15:14 IST

NOIDA: Mohammed Gulzar, who allegedly committed suicide on Sunday by jumping from the 7th-floor terrace of a quarantine centre at Galgotias University, had a history of mental illness and had allegedly threatened to commit suicide earlier in the day if his reports did not come soon.
Gulzar was undergoing treatment at a Delhi clinic for the past one year and was brought to the quarantine centre at Galgotias after he was found roaming aimlessly in Ecotech 1 area on April 10. Officials suspected he had visited the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Nizamuddin and decided to admit him because he ran a temperature and coughed a few times.
Gulzar’s uncle Zakir said he would often get anxious about his test reports and tell others he wanted to go back home. Around 12.30pm on Sunday, Gulzar’s family received a call from the quarantine centre that he was not doing well. “We learnt that he had climbed to the terrace of the building and threatened to jump from there if he was not allowed to go back home. The doctors pacified him by calling us,” he said.
Repeated requests by Gulzar’s family members to allow him to go home fell on deaf ears. He allegedly committed suicide around 8pm on Sunday. The alleged suicide has, however, raised questions on whether medical needs of those suffering from mental health problems are being overlooked at quarantine centres.
Gulzar’s is not the solitary case. At another isolation centre set up at Ambedkar hostel of Gautam Buddha University, a woman has been running around the corridor, touching others and shouting that she wants to “spread” the virus. A man at the same facility has been leaving his bed and sleeping on the corridor for days.
Officials agreed such patients need special care, but also admitted that there is no such arrangement at the moment. “We have raised concerns about such patients, but the officials here seem to be busier about how to contain the spread of the virus. On Sunday, doctors at the hostel had tried to take away the woman who has been running around the corridor. When she resisted, she was locked up in a room and let out again on Monday,” said a source at the hostel.
Others at the quarantine facility said the anxious wait for test reports and the possibility of contracting the infection in the absence of any social distancing norms is also exerting a toll on mental health.
Experts said people kept in quarantine and away from their families should regularly be checked for depression and other such mental concerns. “Staff at quarantine facilities needs to be trained at picking up indications. Such patients should be kept in separate isolation rooms,” said Dr Nimesh Desai, director of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS). “Not isolating them can be very dangerous. They may unwittingly infect others if they test positive for Covid-19,” he added.