Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy will inaugurate a rehabilitation centre for women cured of psychiatric illnesses at the Kozhikode Corporation-owned building on Cherootty Road on Sunday.
The project is implemented jointly by the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Imhans) and ‘Swanthanam,' a people's initiative.
The women will be given training in making doormats, notebooks, and cover for medicines. Imhans director Krishna Kumar said a rehabilitation centre for women cured of mental illness was a strongly felt need as it was noticed that the majority of such women were not easily accepted into the social mainstream and had to live the rest of their lives with a social stigma.
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Imhans already has a rehabilitation centre at the government mental hospital at Kuthiravattam and in Malappuram, as well as in other parts of Kozhikode district.
In Kozhikode, these centres are at Thalakulathur, Balussery, Cherootty Road, Ulyeri, and Feroke, and in Malappuram at Edavanna, Edakkara, Kunumpuram, Manjeri, Arecode, Nilambur, Malappuram town , Pookkottupadam, Edayur, and Thiruvavaya.
Imhans has expanded its activities. Started 25 years ago as an autonomous agency of the State government with a handful of employees, it is now manned by 70 employees and has extended its activities to Kasaragod, Wayanad and Malappuram.
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Services of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are available free at Imhans centres. The Imhans rehabilitation centre at the government mental hospital in Kuthiravattam has sales turnover of Rs. 63 lakh, earned by undertaking printing work for government hospitals and making notebooks.