The increasing number of residents in psycho-social rehabilitation centres and the dearth of projects to keep them occupied are the major issues faced by such centres in the country.
However, E. Nazeer, a social scientist and member, Kerala State Mental Health Authority, in association with select psycho-social rehabilitation centres in the State has come out with Karma Patham, an occupational rehabilitation model project to address the issue.
The project, launched in 2020, aims at making rehabilitated patients self-reliant by providing them training, in vocational and social skills, instead of keeping them confined within the four walls of a rehabilitation centre, Mr. Nazeer told The Hindu. “We divide the residents into five categories under the project, from zero dependent stage to successive functional levels. The aim is to make them free, social persons,” Mr. Nazeer said.
Various levels
The various levels are self-care, working with others, independent tasks at the centre, independent tasks outside the centre, activities in the community, and finally the sixth stage of being socially active as others. Primary assessment and appropriate psychosocial interventions are an integral part of the project. “We have put up a diagram at the centres so that the patients can assess their condition themselves,” he said. Most of them were in the first or second stage and have improved considerably, while a few have reached the final stage, the social inclusion or butterfly stage,” Mr. Nazeer added. Such residents can either work from the centre or home.
All the 76 residents of the Jyothi Nivas psycho-social rehabilitation centre at Vazhavatta in Wayanad were trained under the project and five of them reached the final stage. One woman got married, said Johny Pallithazhath, director of the centre.
Runs an outlet
Vikram (name changed), now a resident of Jyothi Nivas, developed mental illness around 20 years ago. During a journey to Thiruvananthapuram to attend an interview, he lost his bag with all his documents and the incident triggered mental illness in him. He underwent treatment in various hospitals in the State and Karnataka, but to no avail. The youth reached the centre from the Government Mental Health Centre in Kozhikode nearly seven years ago. “Now, he is in the butterfly stage and is running a honey outlet. Every morning, Vikram leaves for his shop from the centre and returns in the evening,” Mr. Pallithazhath said.
“My brother has almost recovered and has become self-reliant,” said his brother working in New Zealand, after visiting the shop recently.
The Jyothi Nivas Charitable Trust recently launched a project titled ‘Unarvu’ in association with Muttil grama panchayat under the guidance of Mr. Nazeer to ensure mental health literacy to all in the civic body.
