Rehabilitation of Homeless Abandoned Roadside Mentally Ill Patients

About the Organization:
Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal is a voluntary organization dedicatedly working for the rehabilitation of homeless abandoned roadside mentally ill patients in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra. We have 60 patients in our Manavseva Project and around 2500 have been successfully reunited with their families so far. Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal is working for the prevention and control of STI/HIV AIDS among the migrant workers.

Issue:
Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal has completed a survey of homeless people with mentally ill roadside destitute in the city of Ahmednagarand in the whole district where it is found that the number of patients is quite large it is 1080 in which 380 are female and 700 are male. This survey was conducted by Amrutvahini in theperiodof 2010 to 2011. The causes which the organization have found behind this number and disease is that grim poverty, lack of medical facilities, familiar issues, mental shocks, Alcoholism and drug addiction. The organization has primarily worked on this issue its level and has solved some cases. Ahmednagar city is in the mid draught prone area of Maharashtra. It has meagre rainfall in this year. The district is the largest district of Maharashtra. People are facing acute labour issues. The beneficiaries are some from this district and some are abundant by their families and relatives. This is the only reason that the organization is motivated to apply for the same. The patients are roaming on the streets and are in a danger situation of mental state. That is why the organization wants to give them some more medical and mental inputs which will help them to get the stability and physical rest. Considering the number and seriousness of the disease it is an urgent need of the time to intervene on the level of identification, rescue, counselling treatment and reunion and to some extent rehabilitation of such patients at the level of Ahmednagar city and district. It is proposed that on these four levels the intervention can be worked out where the project will prove a catalyst in the union of the abandoned and dislocated patients and parents for their permanent union on human level. It is in the ambit of human rights also.

Action:
1. Identification of the patient- As the homeless people are roaming in the city and rural area of Ahmednagar district this will be the first level of intervention to take the person at the centre of the organization and identify about him / her at all levels and take the permission from the families or if not identified in a certain period from the government and then start for the further process. The volunteer will carry on this process and will find out the details of the person.
2. Treatment of the person with mentally ill patient- After the identification and certain procedure completion the treatment of the person will be started at the centre of the organization. For this the organization has already toed up with the Kshirsagar Hospital at Ahmednagar, where Dr. Kshirsagar is a M.D. in psychiatry. The hospital has agreed upon to work on this project and is ready to sign any bond required for the same. Organization has signed MOU with Dr. AnayKshirsagar for treatment and psycho- therapies. Here required other type of extra and additional medical expertise will be made available on the case to case basis. Organisation has appointed to Dr. Sandesh Bangar as a Medical officer for the project to treat regularly.
3. Counselling of the Person- This process will start at the certain level of mental settlement of the person. It will be executed in the direction of reunion first and if it is not workable then the person will be referred for the permanent rehabilitation.
4. Reunion with families- If a person is developed by the treatment and if the person’s families are found in a good and acceptable situation then the person will be handed over to the families. In this cases the persons bond in writing will be taken and to some extent the centre will keep monitoring of the person and families. This process will be done very thoroughly and it will be most important factor of this total intervention.
5. Permanent rehabilitation- After a certain level of development the person will be taught some life skills and will be provided some vocational training. Or some private employment will be made available to the developed patients. After the rehabilitation also the centre will keep monitoring of the patients activities in the required period.
6. To run counselling, treatment and follow-up centre for under treatment and post treatment of the patients:- This centre will be the centre of all activities which will execute and monitor all the activities of the project. Here the Hospital is also attached which will be main supporting factor of the project.
7. Mental health Awareness Programme- Organization has selected 500 villages as major issues and will be conducted street plays and awareness programme etc. And Information, Education and communication (IEC) material will be distributed by the programme and will conduct the meeting along with the women in the villagesstakeholder meetings.

Impact :
Many residents trained at Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal are now rehabilitated and gainfully employed. Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal also runs an informal placement service for its residents, both current and former, which tries to place residents in situations that are appropriate to their skills and stability levels. With more emphasis now being placed on skills training, plans are afoot to strengthen placement services and widen the scope of vocational training.

Primary Cause :
Health

Project Location(s):
Ahmednagar