Rinpas: Healing touch

Ranchi, Nov. 18: Sixty-six-year-old Om Prakash Verma likes to cook and serve food to his fellow inmates at Ranchi Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Allied Sciences (Rinpas). Admitted as a patient way back on February 6, 1990, Om Prakash has recovered and is leading a “normal” life for the past three years, albeit at a health institute instead of home.

Like Om Prakash, 105 other patients have regained their health, but have been abandoned by their families. Their never-ending wait to return home has prompted Rinpas to build a halfway house for patients who have been treated and are ready to return to the mainstream, but have none to welcome them home.

Abandoned by their own family members, the mentally ill patients will be encouraged to live independent lives in the shelter-cum-rehabilitation centre, a first-of-its-kind in the state that will be located at a stone’s throw from the Rinpas premises in Kanke.

The home will accommodate 100 in two campuses — one each for male and female patients — spread over eight acres. The project is estimated to cost Rs 5 crore. The patients, who will be given permanent shelter, if need be, will be trained in vocational skills and engaged in running the house on their own.

When contacted, Om Prakash’s brother, who stays in Sindri, said, “We want to take him back. But if he wishes to stay in the halfway house, we don’t have a problem either. In fact, it is for him to decide.”

Dr Amool R. Singh, the head of clinical psychology at Rinpas, said the institute had initially approached various NGOs to lend support to this ambitious project, but in vain. “So, we decided to take it up on our own. We have already got the approval of the institute’s governing body. The state government too has assured us financial assistance for this dream project,” he said.

Construction work is likely to start within a month. The institute is waiting for the release of funds.

“By imparting various vocational lessons, we hope to instil self-confidence in these people so that they can live with dignity,” Singh said. He pointed out that patients from Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), who had recovered, would also be welcome to the halfway house.

The en masse relocation of patients is also aimed at reducing the burden on the institute, which is unable to admit new patients due to lack of seats. “The halfway house will make way for new patients, who need urgent care, to be admitted at Rinpas,” Singh said.

In fact, 85 of the patients who have recovered are staying at the institute for more than five years as their family members have refused to accept them.

The 500-bed institute, which treats patients from neighbouring Bengal, Orissa and Bihar as well, is involved in rehabilitation, community programmes and teaching and research.