In the next two years, nearly 10,000 mental patients — who have recovered from their illness but have no place to go as their families refuse to take them back – could find themselves a new home.
Called as Rehabilitation Homes (RHs), there will be one or two such homes attached to each of the 43 State-run mental hospitals or mental health institutions in the country. A set of guidelines issued recently by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment put the onus on the State Governments to set up these homes within two years.
The Centre has promised to provide all technical guidance in setting up the RHs.
The concept of RHs has been devised for such patients who are sufficiently cured but have been overstaying in the mental hospitals for over a year till up to five years.
The plight of such patients was presented by a lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal in a PIl filed before the Supreme Court. The court ordered the Centre to take initiatives following which a committee was constituted.
The committee has now proposed guidelines to be implemented by State Governments. The Centre has presented the guidelines to the court and requested it to issue necessary orders directing States to implement them forthwith. The matter will be taken up by the Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar in July.
The Centre informed the court that RH will be aimed at relocation, rehabilitation and reintegration of patients who are cured but have no place to go. This would not only ease the burden on occupancy of beds in mental asylums but also will satisfy the human rights of such patients who no longer need to be in an environmental detrimental for their mental health.
With this aim, the RHs will be set up in a place outside the existing mental hospital premises. In order to ensure “home like” settings for both men and women inmates, there will be social interactions, sports facilities, recreational and cultural activities, and even counseling assistance at the homes.
In addition, skill building and occupational activity training will be imparted to help the inmates reintegrate in society.
The committee that recommended the requirements of these RHs categorised persons overstaying for periods ranging between one year and five years as long stay patients (lSP).
A scientific study of 2012 quoted lSP figure to be 7,307 out of 15,349 patients across the country. A Technical Committee on Mental Health reporting from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) estimated 3,408 mental patients staying beyond a year and 3,023 staying beyond five years by this year-end.
With the current advancements in science, the Committee felt there was no need for a patient to remain in a mental hospital beyond a year. By this count, the magnitude of persons requiring rehabilitation and relocation was calculated to be 10,000.