In a mental health home and losing her mind

One nurse, a weekly doctor’s visit for 103 residents

A seclusion room in the State-run Home for Mentally Retarded Women in Bengaluru.

Behind grilled gates, a large group of women dressed in blue shirts settle down on the floor after their morning routine. They have been tonsured as they are every month, bathed, and they have eaten a meal. And now, “there is nothing left to be done but sit”, says 60-year-old Revathi (name changed).

For the 25 years that she has been here at the State-run Home for Mentally Retarded Women (HMRM) that houses 103 women in the city, a television has been the only source of brief diversion from a deadening monotony.

The lack of intellectual stimulation — which, mental health experts say is essential to their rehabilitation — is only one among the several glaring problems that ail the institution.

Understaffed and overcrowded, this is one of the 24 institutions for women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in the country featured in the latest Human Rights Watch report, ‘Treated worse than animals’. The report records prolonged confinement, unsanitary conditions and neglect in several homes.

The over 100 women at the HMRM receive no more than one visit a week from a doctor, a single nurse to attend to their medical needs, and eight wardens to feed, bathe, and watch over them.

This is grossly inadequate, says Sanjeev Jain, professor of psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS). “Any such facility with a significant number of people needs at least two full-time doctors and an attendant for every five patients.” The ratio now is one attendant for over 10 residents.

Social stigma

While the home is overcrowded it is difficult to turn away patients, superintendent Damayanti told The Hindu . “Sometimes people are just abandoned at the gate.” The social stigma attached to mental illness means that family rarely visits, and almost no one has ever been taken back after treatment. “They die here, and we arrange for their cremation or burial.”

The Department for the Empowerment of Differently abled and Senior Citizens is “examining a proposal to fill the vacant posts,” said G. Mohan, district officer with the department.