The Hindu : Kerala / Kozhikode News : Extension activities for the care of the mentally ill

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Monday, Apr 16, 2007
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Kerala - Kozhikode

Extension activities for the care of the mentally ill

Staff ReporterMaleeha Raghaviah

Manas will provide rehabilitation care to 18 male members in the 30-62 age-group who have completed treatment in hospitals and still continue to be under medication.

KOZHIKODE: In view of the demand for care and rehabilitation of the mentally ill, Manas, the Society for Mental Health, is going ahead with its expansion programmes to provide succour to this section of society.

More than 70 per cent of the work of the new building being constructed on the Manas campus at Thalakulathur here has been completed.

The new premises is expected to provide succour to a maximum of 50 persons who have been treated at hospitals and now need rehabilitation therapy.

Manas will provide rehabilitation care to 18-odd male members in the 30-62 age-group who have completed treatment in hospitals, and still continue to be under medication.

In addition, a free medical camp in which as many as 35 to 40 persons will be provided medicines, will be conducted on the last Thursday of every month. The munificent assistance provided by philanthropists by way of financial aid amounting to Rs.1.75 lakh has gone a long way in taking up the extension work at the care home.

The Thalakulathur branch of the Canara Bank donated beds, pillows and bed-sheets to the centre at a programme held recently. M.C. Srinivasan, Canara Bank Divisional Manager, inaugurated the programme .

Sadasivan Pillai, branch manager, presided over the function.

Assistance

Sources at Manas said that the extension activities were being undertaken despite odds, and in the optimism that assistance would be provided by all sections of people on a humanitarian basis.

"We have sought Government assistance and are awaiting sanction.

"The medicines provided to inmates are expensive, and on an average one person requires medicines worth Rs.600.

"Traders and commercial establishments too have been quick to respond to the appeal for assistance," said a member of the governing committee.

Experts in the field such as K.R. Balakrishnan, Saboo Rehman, and O.V. Vasudevan were providing psychiatry consultancy on a voluntary basis.

Many doctors also donated the samples medicines to the centre.

Maleeha Raghaviah

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