Halfway Home “contemporary model in Indian context and enforcer of human rights”.

By Abhijit Pathak

Important Terms

• Human Rights.• Mental Health.• Rehabilitation• Halfway Home.• Daycare Centre.• Awareness.

Human Rights

Human rights are kind of attributes which are inherent to the human from his birth. These attributes are meant for adequate functioning of a human being in a society in which he or she lives. And these attributes cannot be separated or discriminated on the basis of caste, religion, sex, nationality or the social economic status of the country.

Mental Health

Mental health is a condition in which a human realize his capabilities to form relations with other human beings, able to work with full potentials, able to enjoy and recreate every moment of his life.

Halfway Home

A halfway house or home is a place that allows people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities to learn the social and other skills necessary to integrate or re-integrate into society.

Day Care Centre

• A Day care centre constitute an approach which helps in rehabilitating mentally ill patients through several activities which tries to fix the shortcomings of social withdrawals, cognition and physical impairments.

Rehabilitation & Awareness

• Rehabilitation means re integrating the person with the society which helps the person to overcome his physical and mental shortcomings.

• Awareness is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding.

Richmond Fellowship Society

Foundation

• By Ms Elly Jansen in U.K in the year 1959.• A non- profit organization having its presence

across 30 countries.• It generally follows the Therapeutic

Community approach for treatment of persons afflicted by mental health problems.

Richmond Fellowship Society (India)

• Commenced its operation first in Bangalore in 1986 with therapeutic community approach.

• Rest of the Branches are , Delhi, Lucknow, Sidlaghatta and Ramnagaram.

• Primary focus on psycho socio rehabilitation with the help of half way home and day care.

Richmond Fellowship Society (Delhi)

Richmond Fellowship Society (Delhi)

• Commenced in mid end of 90s in Gurgaon and later shifted to Greater Noida.

• Also known as “Vishwas” which consists of halfway home and “Leena Khurana Day Care Centre”.

Objectives

• To provide support for mentally and emotionally disturbed persons and integrate them with family and society.

• To create public awareness for eradicating stigma.

• To promote mental health in the community.• To collaborate and network with other

organization having similar objectives.

Observations through the perception of Human Rights

• The organization strictly follows the Article 25 of human rights which says that every individual is entitled to have standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, and housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Continued…

• Organization has also tried to do justice with the article 27 which confirms the right of a person to freely associate him or herself in the cultural activities of the communities like on 12th September the organization had conducted fund raising program through musical concert and members were also taken to enjoy that concert, a fund raising programme is a social activity with cultural touch with musical concert.

Continued…• By covering all these aspects the organization is covering

the article 3 and 5 of human rights which says that everyone is entitled with right to life and should not be treated inhumanly.

• The members were given opportunity to realize their talent, the paintings prepared by few members are given for exhibition, one of the members were provided a demo class so that they could realize they potential again for teaching. By these initiatives the organization is keep on trying to do justice with article 23 which ensure right to work, fair remuneration and secured environment.

Importance of Securing the rights of mentally ill in Indian context.

Culture Stigma

Culture

• People beliefs are deep rooted can only be molded up to certain extent but can’t be transformed completely. These beliefs have always compromised the quality of life that another person wanted to live.

• Superstitions supersede the logic and thus, faith healers loots the public and patients reaches to the treatment at the last moment.

Stigma

• Societal pressure produces stigma in family in aggregate to whole society.

• Lack of understanding on mental illness creates apathy among society people.

Continued…

Lethargy

Unawareness

Lethargy

• Policy makers has shaped sluggish attitude of the society towards mental health.

• Health has never become a political agenda in India.

• Financial burden demoralizes people to take step towards quality medical treatment.

Unawareness

• As mental illness brief introduction doesn’t find its place in school biology books of the intermediate in majority.

• Mental illness is not a common topic on the discussion table as far as other disease are concerned.

• Government failure in promoting these issues as it did with polio, tuberculosis, cancer etc.

• Mental illness has always remain a topic of amusement and apathy for mass because of the irresponsible role of different forms of media as portraying mentally ill as clown showing disrespect to the ill and sufferer.

• Inadequate infrastructure and carrier opportunities push the medical aspirants to back off their feet.

• Few researches on the remedial aspects rather than its etiological aspect.

Role of Mental Health Social Worker

Educator

Lobbyist

Activist

Therapist

Media & Mental Health

• Should understand its Responsibility.• Stop lampooning this issues.• Movies should educate and not make fun.• There should be a regular panel discussion

including from the ministry of education, health and social activist and medical professionals, the politicization of this issue is necessary so as mass representation problem is also necessary.

Article 21 Right to Privacy????

• Unconsciously maintaining the secrecy.• Fear of getting neglected.• Article promoting stigma and taboo.• Hinders community mental health process.