Unnal Mudiyum - An Aasha Employment Project Initiative

The new Aasha shop - Unnal Mudiyum

Inaugration by PMJF Lion J. S. Vijayakumar
of Unnal Mudiyum Aasha Shop

Interacting with Aasha members at Aasha shop

At Aasha Paper Cup production unit

Aasha paper cups

Dr. Anandan(visiting Psychiatrist at Aasha) speaking about mental illness

The chief guest airs his views about Aasha

Panelists

Beginning the celebration

Aasha kicked off its twentieth year celebrations with a visit from dear friends Jo, Claudine, Jonas and Aries from Belgium. They visited Aasha Rehabilitation Home and all Aasha shops. Claudine is working at Schoonderhage(Belgium) a home for the mentally challenged. She is also a care-giver. Jo works at Kind en Gezin as a psychologist involved in child welfare. Jo and Claudine had visited Aasha in 1990 when Aasha was just starting to spread its wings. Jo, Claudine, Venkatesh, Dharmarajan, Muralidharan and Ratna Chibber - Aasha Shop

Aasha Paper cup manufacturing unit

Claudine making a call from Aasha stationery shop

Lunch at Aasha Home

Beverage time at Aasha general stores

Interacting with the residents

World Disability Day

Today December 3rd is World Disability Day. A time for those struck by a disability so challenging to remind the world that we exist. A time for our resilience to bring forth awe in those around us. Because we are resilient. We live in a world of unspeakable difficulties, a world where perfection is given the highest regard and yet we live, to make the most of everyday.

The Government of India did not recognize Mental Illness as a disability till last year. Is it because it is less obvious (visible) than other disabilities? But really how can we define what is truly disabling?

“The official definition of persons of disability includes a person suffering from not less than forty per cent of any disability as certified by a medical authority.” “Deciding the quantum of disability as forty per cent is not practically possible in case of Mental Illness. Patients suffering from mental illness will be unable to obtain a certificate from a qualified medical practitioner stating that they suffer from forty per cent mental illness. This brings about discrimination amongst disabled persons prejudicing the interests of mentally ill persons.”

According to Ratna Chibber, President Aasha, “A mentally ill person does not probably have any visible disability and hence faces discrimination from the law makers, government bodies, prospective employers while also grappling with stigma and discrimination of every day existence. There needs to more awareness about mental illness and its effects on the body and mind. There have been instances when people viewed a mentally ill person who is not performing at work or study as a “lazy person”, just giving excuses”, without realizing that the individual is unable to perform and his condition is as disabling as any other physical disability.”

We have to lobby harder for the rights of individuals with mental illness to give them a better quality of life and provide them with access to all legal and social regulations that are awarded to other disabilities.

I would like to add that only last year (2007) India ratified its position on including mental illness as a disability and if was not for the few individuals and organizations whose voices echoed the hallowed hallways of policy makers repeatedly this would not have been possible.

Book launch of "We are not alone" By Nirmala Srinivasan

Ratna Chibber receiving the first edition from Dr. Saraceno (WHO)on behalf of Aasha, families & carers

Aasha at ICONS 2008

Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) Chennai, held their Third International Conference of Schizophrenia from October 17th -19th 2008. Allied programs were:

An International Film Festival on Mental Health from 10th-12th October 2008.

Short Film competition on Mental Health

Book Launch

Participation by Aasha was through:

Ratna Chibber President Aasha was one of the jury members for the short film festival.

All carers from Aasha were invited for viewing the movies at the International Film Festival at no charge.

Ratna Chibber received the first edition of a book titled "We are not alone" by Nirmala Srinivasan, ACMI, Bengaluru.

Ratna Chibber co-chaired a session on 'Carers & Consumers' and all carers from Aasha again were invited to attend without any prior registration.

Carers & Consumers

(l-r) Ratna Chibber, Dr. Srinivasa Moorthy, Janine Berg-Peer, Snigdha Mishra, Col. Mehendiratta

I've just returned from a session on 'Carers & Consumers' held by SCARF(Schizophrenia Research Foundation) at their International Conference on Scizophrenia (Icons 08') at Hotel Savera, Chennai . The target audience for this session were specifically the care-givers and the consumers themselves. Ratna Chibber, President Aasha co-chaired with Dr.Srinivasa Moorthy, Prof. & Head of Dept. of Psychiatry(Retd.) Nimhaans. Snigdha Mishra representing Nirmala Srinivasan from ACMI enunciated on the topic of "Why should families know the various Indian legal acts?" , Janine Peer-Berg (Germany) spoke about "Caregiving in Schizophrenia -the challenges", and Col. Mehendiratta ( Atmashakti, Chandigarh) articulated his experiences as a care-giver. Ms. Mishra took this opportunity to educate us about the Mental Health Act(MHA) vs the United Nations Convention for Rights of Persons with Disability(UNCRPD) & the Disability act. It was extremely interesting to note that tussle going on between the legal eagles and the those who are at the receiving end. Ultimately the act has to provide relief to the consumer and then the carer.

In Ms. Peer-Berg's address she mentioned that there were not many differences between care-giving attitudes in Germany and India. The main disparity as pointed out by Dr. Moorthy was in the presence of mental health services, professionals and groups between Germany & India. For a population of 1.2 billion people we have only 3000 psychiatrists and 1250 psychiatric nurses.

Col. Mehendiratta gave a very heartfelt and at times angst ridden talk about the failure of the government in providing for mental health services. He spoke of building a state of the art hospital for long term care of the mentally ill.

In their concluding statements Dr. Moorthy mentioned the use of technology to create awareness and remove stigma and Ms. Chibber stressed on the importance of carer participation in forums like these.

While this session for carers and consumers was very interesting and informative it was quite disheartening to note that attendance by the care-givers was minimal. I was quite pleased to note that a few members of Aasha were present but even those were the committee members. There was no presence felt from the relatives of the thirty residents of Aasha. There was negligible presence of other carers. But there were quite a few psychiatrists and other professionals which made this absence all the more glaring.

Yes it was a Sunday morning but are we so busy that we cannot attend an hour to be more informed about our kith and kin? We as care-givers have to take more initiative to improve not only the lives of the consumers but also our lives by being educated and informed when opportunities present themselves at such forums and also in understanding that we do need to join hands and minds in fighting mental illness.

Let us take heed from Col.Mehendiratta who said, " If I have been given a problem then I shall fight to solve it" !

Honour Roll

Kromatiks & Insulants Pvt. Ltd
Devi Polymers
Merind Engineering
Kappa Electricals
Arul Engineering
Essen International
Jaya & K. Narasimhan
Chitra Ramani
All other individuals, care-givers, members and most importantly the staff for providing invaluable service to Aasha.