Sponsor quality food for mental health patients in the rehabilitation center

Impact

**Bindiya was found on the streets of Birubari area in Guwahati.** The public called to report a mentally disturbed women behaving in a socially unacceptable manner. The rescue team brought her to the Transit Care center of Navachetana, a rehabilitation home for homeless women with mental illness. **She was so disturbed that she tried to run away the minute she was brought to the home.** She was enrolled in the home and given a bath and a change of clothes. In her early days at the home, Bindiya used to stay unkempt. She would keep muttering to herself. She carried a pile of garbage that she wasn't willing to part with. Once she settled down, she was sent for medical examination. **She was diagnosed with Chronic Schizophrenia.** The home then started pharmacotherapy for her. In the initial days, Bindiya was irritable. **Psycho-therapeutic sessions failed as she would present a guarded attitude and not cooperate.** Sometimes she would walk out from the room. She remained emotionally and socially withdrawn. It was a challenge to communicate with her. **She would even refrain from maintaining basic personal hygiene and lacked toilet habits.** The staff had to constantly prod her to carry out activities of daily living. **Over time as her therapy continued, her active symptoms of mental illness reduced.** She was then shifted to her second phase of rehabilitation.. She started to get involved in household chores that required sharing responsibilities. This helped in her socialization skills. **She learnt jute work that helped in refining her fine motor skills.** The therapists noted that her sense of responsibility was very high. She would never leave a job unfinished. Her social and motor skills were honed by giving her responsibilities that required her to supervise other residents. **From being non cooperative, she soon started taking care of other residents.** Over a few months of therapy and workshops Bindiya recovered her memory. **She remembered that she was from Jirrah village of Bankura district, West Bengal.** Ashadeep then initiated a plan for her reintegration with her family. When the reintegration team reached Bindiya place, the entire community gathered to welcome her. **The team learnt that she had been suffering from psychiatric illness for almost 30 years.** Though they had initially sought treatment, **they had to discontinue it as they couldn't afford it.** One day she disappeared from home and over the years they had come to believe that she must have died while wandering on the streets. Her husband and children were at a loss of words to express their emotions. Bindiya had accepted her illness as her life dictation. **It was due to Ashadeep tireless determination that she was finally home after 10 long years!** Today, she continues to get therapy and medication so she can have a normal life. **Your help can transform many more lives like those of Bindiya. You can donate so that underprivileged patients suffering from mental illness can receive therapy and be rehabilitated. You can give with confidence because every program listed is [GIVEASSURED](https://www.giveindia.org/giveassured).**

About The Program

The Navachetana home run by Ashadeep rescues women with mental health issues. The home provides them with shelter, food, and medical care. They also assist in their reintegration with their families wherever possible. Donation to this program cover the cost of food for a day for the residents in the Navchetana transit home. Close to 30 residents stay in the home. Navachetana was started as an attempt to rehabilitate the mentally affected homeless women living on the streets of Guwahati. 355 women have been rescued and rehabilitated by Ashadeep till now. Homeless women from the street with mental illness are admitted either by Ashadeep team and volunteers, or directly by the police, or are referred by the State Home for Women or other shelter homes/organizations. An initial assessment and certification is done by the psychiatrist and a record is filed at the nearest police station of the rescue. They are give medical treatment as well as therapy. The Rehabilitation process involves assessment at each stage: One to one counseling for identifying home and background. Assessment of clinical condition Assessment of living skills on the basis of which individual plans are developed Assessment of vocational skills for livelihood Occupational activity with various vocations such as household work, kitchen, gardening, needlework, knitting, jute work, music & dance and therapeutic work activity. If the family of the patient is traced, the home initiates reintegration. The patient is discharged only when they achieve a minimum living skills criteria. If the family does not come to Navachetana to pick up the residents, then the staff accompany the resident to her house to reunite them. The team maintains communication with the family through phone. They obtain authenticity through photographs of family members. Once reunited with family, the case is closed at the police station where the original entry was made. If a woman does not have a family or her home cannot be traced but she becomes functional, then she is re-integrated into Homes run either by the government or Civil Society Organizations. In some cases, where the disability due to the illness is very severe and information regarding the woman's whereabouts cannot be traced at all, she remains with Ashadeep. When you donate to this program, you help women suffering from mental illness the nourishment that is very important f or their recovery.

About The NGO

Ashadeep mission is to initiate and strengthen interventions for persons with mental disorders and their families in the North Eastern states of India, in an attempt to achieve a life of better quality for them. Anjana and Mukul Goswami, with like minded people, formed Ashadeep in 1996 to take care of people with mental disorders as the rehabilitation facilities. There were no mental health rehabilitation facilities available in Assam and the North East during that time. People had to go to Kolkata or Bangalore, which was not affordable for all. Founder Mukul Chandra Goswami had a traumatic but positive experience of taking care of and rehabilitating his sister suffering from Schizophrenia. Mukul Goswami, a banker till 2001, along with his wife Anjana, a lecturer, formed Ashadeep in 1996. Over 360 individuals suffering from mental illness and intellectual disability have received therapy, special and conventional education, training in sports and vocational activities in Ashadeep Day Rehabilitation Centre since 1996. 650 homeless mentally ill persons have been housed and treated in rehabilitation homes, of which 550 have been successfully reintegrated with their families. 1200 individuals in Guwahati and over 2000 in rural areas of Assam have been intervened upon issues related to mental health through their Outdoor Psychiatric Clinic and Outreach Camps. Over 120 training and orientation programmes on mental health have been organized for school and college students, ASHAs, ANMs, Anganwadi workers, policemen, etc. Since 2013, a Community Mental Health Programme has been initiated in 3 different blocks of Assam helping 1500 patients with Severe Mental Disorders.