THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Soon mental health patients will get to spend more quality time with family members and live with them during their treatment period, thereby ensuring better reintegration into society.With the setting up of a Family Short-Stay Home, the family members of the patient will get to live with the patient, take active participation in the treatment programme and thereby enable better reinstatement of the patient into the family.
The Family Short Stay Home project has been envisaged by the Social Justice Department in its attempt to de-stigmatise mental health patients and enable easy transition of the recovered inmates into the family and society. As a pilot project, the Family Short Stay Home will be set up in the Government Mental Health Centre Peroorkkada in Thiruvananthapuram. The same will be implemented in other mental health centres in the state after the pilot run.
The idea is to enable the patients to live in a homely support system along with the relatives before they shift to their homes. “Many mental health patients are still left in cells even after recovery, unable to return home. This is a very drastic scenario, as the families refuse to take them back. And the Family Short Stay Home is one of the components of the mental health action plan. This Home will help in better understanding between the family members whereby they will be confident enough to take the recovered patients back home. The decision as to when to involve the family in the treatment plan and to shift the patient into the Home will be taken by the doctor,” says a Social Justice Department official.
The Home is being constructed by the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD). The Home is being built spending Rs 50 lakh. It will be modelled in the form of traditional Kerala architecture, in the form of a Naalukettu. It will also sport a front yard which will help the staff monitor the patient and the family. Only one family will be living in the home at a time.
“The social stigma attached to mental health patients is a grave issue that needs to be addressed. Such a Home will allow the family members to be part of the treatment plan and understand the patient better and thereby reintegrate the member back to the family,” says Anil Kumar L, superintendent, Mental Health Centre, Peroorkkada.
“We envisage a calm, homely atmosphere at the facility. There will be a kitchen, bedroom, dining area, everything to make the patient and family feel at home. It is also a form of family therapy. The doctor and staff will be there to monitor the family during the process. The building will only have a ground floor as we can’t increase the height considering patients with suicidal propensity,” he says. The facility will be ready in a few months, he adds.