Anybody with a mental illness has a challenge to deal with. For the poor and the illiterate this is an insurmountable challenge. Many times he and his surrounding family have no idea what in the hell is wrong. If he is behaving strangely,seeing or hearing things which are not there, has plunged into depression for no reason at all or seems ecstatic, for no reason at all, they are puzzled. Mental diseases have many other odd symptoms. On the whole a patient can make a terrible nuisance of himself.
In the initial stages everybody might try to help. The odd behavior may prompt his family to look for a doctor. The first doctor is generally a general physician. He may prescribe some medicines and give some counselling to the patient. Even if the patient is in need of psychiatric intervention, he may not encourage a visit to a psychiatrist or even a psychologist. Many people are convinced that psychiatrists give medicines that are too strong and which leave the patients numb and doped.
So what's the solution. Leave the patient alone. He will recover in time.
When he doesn't, then the uneducated or the illiterate start finding other methods. They go to a witch doctor, convinced that the patient is possessed. The witch doctor tries to exorcise the demon and gets nowhere.. The poor can no longer support such a person. He is thrown out of the house.
Where does he go? He wonders around the streets, alone and forsaken. Soon the police are informed about him. They bundle him up and send him to a mental hospital. The living conditions in the hospital for the free patients are abysmal. The toilets are filthy, their beds full of lice and bed bugs and there are rats running around. The food is inedible
Sometimes the police pack the patients up in jail. Here they languish for years. Needless to say that these solutions fail to cure the patient. They are truly out caste.
These horror stories affect us but most of us can do nothing about them. These patients live in hell for no fault of theirs. Nobody wants them.
And yet there can be hope. There are rehab centers that helps these patients. They go regularly to such mental hospitals and even jails where they pick up the patients and brings them to their half way homes. Here the patients are treated for their illness free of cost. When they recover, they are sent back home. Even after they leave, medicines are provided to them free of cost.
India needs more of such rehab centers. If we recognize the mentally ill poor patient as a person in dire straits needing immediate attention, then we can make a difference. It is necessary for charitable organizations and NGOs to make this a priority.
Perhaps then these horror stories will have happy endings.
In the initial stages everybody might try to help. The odd behavior may prompt his family to look for a doctor. The first doctor is generally a general physician. He may prescribe some medicines and give some counselling to the patient. Even if the patient is in need of psychiatric intervention, he may not encourage a visit to a psychiatrist or even a psychologist. Many people are convinced that psychiatrists give medicines that are too strong and which leave the patients numb and doped.
So what's the solution. Leave the patient alone. He will recover in time.
When he doesn't, then the uneducated or the illiterate start finding other methods. They go to a witch doctor, convinced that the patient is possessed. The witch doctor tries to exorcise the demon and gets nowhere.. The poor can no longer support such a person. He is thrown out of the house.
Where does he go? He wonders around the streets, alone and forsaken. Soon the police are informed about him. They bundle him up and send him to a mental hospital. The living conditions in the hospital for the free patients are abysmal. The toilets are filthy, their beds full of lice and bed bugs and there are rats running around. The food is inedible
Sometimes the police pack the patients up in jail. Here they languish for years. Needless to say that these solutions fail to cure the patient. They are truly out caste.
These horror stories affect us but most of us can do nothing about them. These patients live in hell for no fault of theirs. Nobody wants them.
And yet there can be hope. There are rehab centers that helps these patients. They go regularly to such mental hospitals and even jails where they pick up the patients and brings them to their half way homes. Here the patients are treated for their illness free of cost. When they recover, they are sent back home. Even after they leave, medicines are provided to them free of cost.
India needs more of such rehab centers. If we recognize the mentally ill poor patient as a person in dire straits needing immediate attention, then we can make a difference. It is necessary for charitable organizations and NGOs to make this a priority.
Perhaps then these horror stories will have happy endings.
No comments:
Post a Comment