The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Centre urged to come out with status report on institutes of mental health in the country

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Centre urged to come out with status report on institutes of mental health in the country

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The State Pressure Group on Disability Issues has urged the Centre to come out with status report on the 36 institutes of mental health in the country.

Quoting from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report on such hospitals in 2002, which revealed gross inadequacies in the infrastructure, services and rehabilitation facilities offered at these institutions, members of the group called for stock taking once again. Bringing the issue up in the context of the recent stand off between the Institute of Mental Health, Kilpauk, and an NGO, The Banyan, constituents of the State Pressure Group met media persons on Tuesday to voice their demands.

Meenakshi B, who is with the Disability Law Unit (DLU) of Vidya Sagar and also a member of the Group, said a set of activities have been planned to escalate the issue of rights and care of people using the institutions for mental health across the country. Looking at the recent incident from the context of moving from institutionalisation to a rights’ approach, the members called for a complete evaluation of the system and amendments to the law in order to help persons with psycho social disorders.

The first step would be the government’s status report and this would be followed up possibly with an independent evaluation by a rights’ group comprising those who use the services of such institutions, Vijay Kumar, advocate said. There has been little change in the complaints that rights’ lobbies have been making of mental health institutions in the country over a long period of time, Rajiv Rajan of the DLU, said.

Mr. Vijay Kumar questioned if the laws pertaining to the rights of the mentally ill persons were in conformation with international laws and conventions. He also suggested amendments that would bring in a rehabilitation aspect in addition to care and support.

P.L.Porkodi, project manager with The Banyan, said there was a need for all government-run mental health institutions in the country to be networked with each other. The NHRC is also currently working on an evaluation of mental health institutes in the country, as a follow up to its own report in 2002, Chaitali Shetty of The Banyan, said. This report is expected to be released soon.

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