Nagpur: State Public Health Department, on Thursday, took several decisions pertaining to reducing social isolation; rehabilitation and help mental patients stand on their own feet after getting cured. The decisions were taken at a meeting headed by Directorate of Health Services (DHS) director Dr Satish Pawar.
The health department runs four mental hospitals in the state at Nagpur, Pune, Thane and Ratnagiri.
The department has planned to fight the low employment rate in mental patients. Dr Pawar said, “The skill development activities conducted at the hospitals are mostly traditional and it needed to be modernized. Hence a decision has been taken to include computer learning within the skill development program. Currently prisons are doing a good job in imparting technology-based updated skills to jail inmates.”
In coming days the health department is likely to have a meeting with the jail authorities to know about their skill development program and adopt all those activities for mental patients, he said.
He also said, “In all the four hospitals there are a large number of patients who have been cured but have no place to go, mostly because they have been abandoned. Such patient stays within hospital walls throughout their life.”
He told about the plan of department to form a committee at every mental hospital which will be counseling the families to accept the patients.
Within the same meeting it was also discussed to adopt a new concept named halfway home, where patients at hospital will be kept in touch with their family along the course of their treatment. “Mental patients are kept in isolation away from society. After a hospital stay of several years, they tend to lose touch with the outside world and when they get discharge they find it difficult to connect with their family and society at large,” he said.
He then said ‘half way home’ s a concept through which the patients will be kept in touch with their family by allowing them to visit home in regular interval. This way the patient will be able to adapt soon after getting the discharge, he added.
Dr Pawar told that the meeting was attended by all the senior officer form the department included additional director, commissioner, additional chief secretary and representatives of all the four hospitals. However, none of the representative from Nagpur Mental Hospital could appear at the meeting because of the short notice given to them. Dr Pawar said, now the additional director will decide on action points.
*Modern skills like computer learning likely to be included in the skill development program of mental patients
*Health department is going to concern Jail Authority to adopt their skill development program meant for jail inmates
*Formation of a committee at all four mental hospital, to counsel patient’s family to accept them
*Introducing a concept called ‘Half way home’ in which patients will be made to visit relative during their treatment.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
