Several inmates stuck in govt mental health centres despite recovery

Thiruvananthapuram: Several people who have been apparently recovered from their mental ailments continue to remain in government-run mental health centres in Kerala as their relatives have abandoned them.

At least 164 inmates of three government-run mental hospitals across the state are forced to spend their lives within the hospital walls as they have been abandoned by their families.

This is despite the doctors certifying that they have fully recovered from mental illness.

As many as 100 such persons are waiting for their relatives to seek discharge from the Mental Health Centre at Peroorkada in Thiruvananthapuram district, while the numbers stood at 39 and 25 respectively at the Government Mental Health Centre at Kuthiravattam in Kozhikode district and in Thrissur.

A majority of those waiting for their kin belonged to the North Indian states, although a handful of Keralites, too, are included.

Most of the persons are aged between 20-60 and some have now spent up to 10 years at the hospital.

Although some voluntary organizations often come forward and adopt such persons, their number keeps rising and thus adding to the burden of the Health Department.

As reported earlier abandoned patients are a major challenge faced by the government hospitals that reel from a constant shortage of beds even as a large number of patients turn up for treatment.

A two-member committee, comprising officials of the Medical Education Directorate and the Health Department, has been set up to coordinate rehabilitation of such abandoned patients.

There are several cases in which the relatives of patients provide a fake address at the time of admission while some others change their phone numbers, claimed hospital sources.

The authorities recently organized a campaign association with the District Legal Services Authority and the IT Mission to trace the original address of those abandoned at the Peroorkada mental health centre.