Going Home Project (GHP):
Community Inclusion of women residing at the Regional Mental Hospital, Yerawada, Pune
India, being a post colonial Commonwealth nation, the archaic solution to someone experiencing an intense mental health experience has been to admit the person in a mental hospital. There, depending on the intensity of distress and disabling conditions experienced the person is made to lead a life behind closed doors and under heavy medication. Women have particularly adverse outcomes on account of societal apathy in provision of support, especially after they have been "in there". Because of this a number of women remain confined for years.
The Bapu Trust has been spearheading services and advocacy for the right of persons with psychosocial disabilities to live in and be included in communities, through the comprehensive urban community based mental health program called ‘Seher’. We have seen that where there is community support, the need for institutionalization and abandonment becomes less. Caring, creating a feeling of belonging, having self care skills to handle stress, mental health enhancing nutrition, psychosocial techniques, peer support and community development around the theme of disability inclusive development, are effective and tested modalities to the crude handling of persons in distress, within lock up.
This ethics of care is enshrined within section 19 of the United Nation Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) as the right to‘Being included and living in the communities’. This right is also provided within the new Rights of persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the Mental Health Care Act, 2017.
The "Going Home Project" envisions creating a pathway to implement this Right of Inclusion and Community Living for long stay recovered women living within the Regional Mental Hospital at Yerawada into communities.
The most important aspect of this project, like all of Bapu Trust service projects and advocacy, is to keep the person at the center of all decision making and service provider responsibility to provide choice in all matters relating to their lives.
Objectives:
To create a pathway for inclusion of women who have recovered but are still living within the regional mental hospital, Pune: from living within institutions to living independently with dignity within communities.
This involves:
- To design therapeutic interventions within RMH Pune that prepares women to exit.
- To create opportunities to enable choice regarding affordable housing, livelihood and independent living within communities.
- To enable access to formal and informal support systems within communities to foster community belonging and inclusion.
Project time: September- 2017 to December 2022
Key Strategies:
- Building an enabling environment through partnership with the RMH Pune.
- Enabling aspiration among the women to ‘go home’ through psychosocial interventions and skills training for independent living.
- Enable communities towards ‘inclusion’ of persons with disabilities through establishing linkage with Bapu Trust’s ongoing Seher: Comprehensive Urban Community Mental Health and Inclusion Program.
- Cultivating networks and partnerships with organizations for housing, livelihoods, standard of living and social capital for women within communities.
Outcome: 40 women will be mainstreamed within communities in Pune city, with housing, livelihood, decent standard of living and community support systems.
Partnerships:
- Public Partners: Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Maharashtra; Regional Mental Hospital Yerawada Pune (RMH), Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)
- Private Partners: International Disability Alliance (IDA) Geneva, Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI), Mumbai
- Crowd sourcing and retail philanthropies
For more details contact:
Ms. Kimberly Lacroix,
Bapu Trust for Research on Mind and Discourse
8 GuruNanak Nagar, II Floor, Off Shankar Seth road, Opposite Kumar Pacific Mall, Pune 411042Maharashtra, India
020-26441989
Email: camhpune@gmail.com
Website: www.baputrust.com
