MENTALLY-ILL ROADSIDE DESTITUTE,MENTAL REHABILITATION CENTRE, SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS TREATMENT,PSYCHIATRIC REHABILITATION CENTER, DONATION FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS, CHARITABLE INSTITUTION

schizophrenia patients NGO,schizophrenia treatment in india

Mental illness in India has been considerably under invested in, given the lack of awareness, the stigma and the discrimination. More than 80% of the population has no access to mental health services. The National Human Rights Commission in India in 1999, conveyed its indignation at the appalling conditions at mental hospitals, which had become dumping grounds for abandoning the mentally ill to a life of incarceration, and which violated the individual’s right to be treated humanely and live a life of dignity. Treatment even at the better hospitals was to keep the patients “manageable” rather than preserve or enhance their daily living skills. With poor awareness, economic hardship and lack of care, many Schizophrenic patients get separated from their loved ones and end up as roadside destitute.

Shraddha, started by Drs. Bharat and Smitha Vatwani, practicing psychiatrists in Mumbai, and ably assisted by Daksesh Parikh, Executive Editor, Business India, Ashok Mohanani, Director, Ekta World, Dr.Ghanshyam Bhimani, Consultant Psychiatrist - has focused on a single segment client definition, roadside destitutes who are mentally ill and need treatment, rehabilitation, and reunion with their loved ones. There is no known institution in India that services these marginalized members of our society.

Typically these patients suffer from Schizophrenia, characterized by a profound disruption in thinking and perception, affecting the patient’s loss of sense of self, language and thought, and the impaired functioning causing loss of acquired abilities, leading to loss of livelihood and relationships.

Schizophrenia has three components to its treatment

	Medication that mitigates symptoms and prevents relapse
	Education and psychosocial intervention to help patients and families cope with the illness and its complications
	Finally rehabilitation that enables the patients to integrate with society and regain their occupational functioning. In about 80% of the patients recovery is possible and more than half of the patients can expect full and lasting recovery.

Innovative Experiments

While schizophrenia is treatable through medication, its effectiveness requires a supportive environment, productive engagement and socialization.

Unlike the claustrophobic custodial care of other psychiatric institutions where patients are locked up to prevent straying, patients at Shraddha are housed on a wide land area and permitted to engage in a range of productive activities including farming, vegetable cultivation, etc.

non-governmental organization for schizophrenia

RICE CULTIVATION

DAIRY FARMING

	With professional psychiatric counselors and care providers the approach is to rehabilitate the patient through preserving and enhancing productive skills, while attempting a reunion with the patient’s lost family.
	The approach is more humanistic than professional and thus has a greater interest in its practice.

WATER HARVESTING

VEGETABLE CULTIVATION BY INMATES