The Government Hospital at Kandigaiperi in Tirunelveli Town, which is all set to get new buildings to accommodate new departments and more facilities to serve people from the western parts of the district, has added a new facility - an Emergency Care and Rescue Centre (ECRC).
With the guidance of Banyan, a Chennai-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) which has been rescuing and rehabilitating mentally ill patients since 1993, the ECRC here can serve 20 rescued mentally ill persons at a time. R-Soya, a Tirunelveli-based NGO, has joined hands with Banyan in this venture.
Minister for Industries Thangam Thennarasu inaugurated the facility in the presence of Collector V. Vishnu, Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital Dean M. Ravichandran and Banyan representatives.
While training the volunteers of R-Soya in rescuing, rehabilitating and counselling of mentally ill patients for four months, the Banyan experts have also taught them the norms to be followed while handling them. Four social workers, two healthcare workers and a nurse will be deployed in the ECRC with the Banyan people evaluating their performance every Friday.
Since persons rescued from the streets suffer from ailments such as fractures due to accidents, vision defects, skin ailments, tuberculosis and hypothyroidism, they would get treatment in the ECRC.
“While half the number of patients, on getting rehabilitated, opt for reunion with their families, the rest like to remain in the rehabilitation centre itself. These people will be accommodated under ‘home again’ model where they will be given vocational training and some of them become volunteers to serve in the wards of the ECRC,” says Dr. Archana Padmakan, Deputy Director, ECRC, Banyan.
In other districts
When this initiative was introduced in five districts - Vellore, Tiruppur, Tiruvannamalai, Theni and Villupuram - it received good reception from the district administrations as the Banyan, after holding detailed discussion with the stakeholders – right from the Collector to government hospital authorities – has executed the initiative well.
Now, the initiative has been taken to Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Sivaganga, Thanjavur, Erode, The Niligirs, Madurai, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari and Cuddalore, wherein local NGOs have been identified for ensuring the best possible results in rescue and rehabilitation of the mentally ill.
