The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Foundation honours caregivers of schizophrenia patients

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2011
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Foundation honours caregivers of schizophrenia patients

Special Correspondent

SCARF-Maitri awards to be made an annual fixture

— Photo: K. Pichumani

VITAL LINK:Sarada Menon (right), founder, SCARF, with a caregiver at a felicitation function in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: As the mother of mentally ill siblings, Samshad Begum has spared no effort to get them the best available care for schizophrenia. Carrying on in life without complaint and not once grimacing at the cruelty of fate, she has accepted them for what they are.

Vanaja comes very close to being a model caregiver. She has been a pillar of strength for her schizophrenic spouse, always making it a point to take him along to family functions. The deep love and respect the children have for their father indicates the quality of their upbringing.

Many a heart-warming story surfaced when the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) decided to honour caregivers of their patients with SCARF-Maitri awards. Perhaps the most amazing story was that of Usha, from a reasonably well-heeled background, whose illness reduced her virtually to a vagabond and who is now on the road to rehabilitation thanks to the commitment of her former schoolmate.

This difficult patient, who was left with no relatives after the death of her father, would call up the doctor at SCARF when she felt very ill, and the institution would bend its rules regarding the presence of a guardian to take her in for treatment. Once, when the patient was picked up from the streets by the police and put up in a shelter, the only contact she could come up with was the number of her former classmate Miriam. Since then, Miriam and her spouse Jerry have adopted the woman into their family fold.

The other awardees were Kousalya, who looks after her mentally ill daughter who was abandoned by spouse; Vimal who has rehabilitated his two elder sisters; Renuka who continues to stand by her spouse after 25 years of treatment at SCARF; Dr. Meenakshi who has adopted her schizophrenic niece; Lakshmi who remained stoic through the shock of her son turning mentally ill and barely passing out of IIT with a diploma instead of a degree; Ekambaram who is very much the doting father to his son; and Srinivasan who looks after his brother-in-law.

Presenting the awards, SCARF founder M. Sarada Menon, acknowledged caregivers as the most important people in this speciality. She urged family members other than the primary caregiver to work on areas outside the domain of the professional such as securing privileges earmarked by the State for the mentally ill.

R. Thara, SCARF Director, said the role of the caregiver was the most challenging and treatment would be ineffective without the cooperation of these persons. The awards for caregivers would be made an annual fixture and, perhaps, the nominations could, in future, be expanded to the entire community of caregivers in the city.

Dr. Mangala, SCARF consultant, who conceived the awards function, said the most poignant aspect of caring for the mentally ill was that unlike in the case of patients with any other chronic disability, the caregiver's efforts are seldom appreciated by the patient. Nothing sums up the value of the caregivers in the family than the remark of Shantha Kamath. “If they say that if you have heart disease you should be born in New York, then if you have mental illness you should be born here,” she said.

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