Halfway homes a feeble hope for recovered inmates of IMH

WCWD Principal Secretary visits IMH to inspect a land parcel to construct them

The Telangana government’s decision to construct halfway homes for people who have recovered from mental illness is a long-held wish fulfilled for more than 100 people, who have been confined to four walls of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) at Erragadda for the past many years.

At present, a total of 126 people, 82 men and 44 women, who were declared fit to be discharged after treatment, are staying at the IMH. Though they crave to live outside the institute, the authorities have no other way but to keep them there. Some of them have been waiting to reintegrate into the society from the time they were declared fit to be discharged six years ago.

Whenever officials visit the IMH wards to inspect the conditions there, they urge the concerned authorities to make arrangements for the mentally-fit inmates to lead a normal life outside the institute. The recovered patients too try their best to convince the visiting officials that they are fit to leave the institute by stating their academic qualifications, or the skills that they possess. Apart from skilled craftspersons and farmers, a few of them are graduates in law, sciences, and other specialisations.

There are also inmates from Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and other States at the IMH.

Meanwhile, IMH’s Superintendent M. Umashankar said they follow magistrate’s orders in dealing with people who are declared fit to be discharged. “The magistrate’s orders vary from case to case. For instance, the order may be to handover the person to his/her family after recovery, or the person is free to walk out of the institute after recovery,” Dr. Umashankar said.

He said in some cases, a few people who recovered could not communicate their address owing to language barrier, or they were unable to recall the same due to the history of mental illness. “In some cases, the family members of a few recovered inmates refused to take them back,” he said.

It is then that halfway homes are the only option for them as they serve as temporary homes that allow people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities to learn the necessary skills to reintegrate into the society. Activists too have been pitching for construction of such homes, which would help the recovered patients to find their feet in society rather than languishing at the IMH. On Tuesday, Chief Secretary to the State Government, S.K. Joshi, directed the officials concerned to prepare a detailed plan for the halfway homes in 15 days and submit it to the government for further action.

On Wednesday, Women and Child Welfare Department (WCWD) Principal Secretary M. Jagadeeshwar and others visited the IMH to inspect if the halfway homes could be constructed on its premises. And on Thursday, surveyors inspected the land on the campus. It is learnt that a piece of land on the periphery of the institute might be selected for the project, which is adjacent to a colony.

“As per tentative plans, two blocks of 75-beds each for women and men would be constructed on the IMH campus. Besides these two blocks, NGOs might be asked to run the halfway homes in major districts. A decision on this is yet to be taken,” said B. Shailaja, Director of Department for Disabled and Senior Citizens.

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