Convention and Seminars under Mental Health & Development program

A convention of PWMIE (people with mental illness & epilepsy), their caretakers and NGOs working for them was organized on 18 August at NBJK, Ranchi. This convention was attended by federations of PWMIE and partner NGOs of Jharkhand-Bihar for Mental Health & Development program by NBJK with support of BasicNeeds, Bangalore. The resolution moved by Mr. Girija Satish (ED, NBJK) to form a national federation of PWMIE was welcomed unanimously and people have elected Mr. Kumar Kant Singh as president while Mr. Angura Mahto, Mrs. Radha Arya and Mr. Satyajit as secretaries and Mrs. Meena Devi as treasurer along with a 17 members executive committee of this national body. This will help to formulate an inclusive mental health policy and program with a say from PWMIE, said Mr. Girija Satish. On 19 August, a seminar upon “Impact of Mental Health & Development Model in Jharkhand” was inaugurated by Dr. K. K. Sinha (Director, RINPAS) at Ranchi. He applauded NBJK-BasicNeeds for a large number identification, treatment with support of RINPAS and rehabilitation of people suffering from mental illness. Mrs. Uma Sunder (BasicNeeds) has discussed about different modules of mental health & development program which ensured mainstreaming of more than 6 lacs PWMIE in India while Mrs. Reema Ghosh (BasicNeeds) has shown statistics for high escalation rate of patients with treatment, IGAs and their association with SHGs or local federations. On 30 August, another seminar was organized at Patna to discuss the impact of the model in Bihar. As the chief guest, Mr. K. K. Singh (President, National Federation of PWMIE) has stressed over replication of mental health & development model by the government for PWMIE suffering due to lack of treatment facilities in Bihar. Mr. Girija Satish has expressed gratitude to BasicNeeds for the comprehensive model to ensure basic rights of PWMIE with support of 23 NGOs in 24 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand. This provided almost free treatment and medicines to 6652 PWMIE, out of that 5503 are in far better condition and 3825 are associated with IGAs or any productive work. The seminar was addressed by social workers and beneficiaries of the model.