Applying a healing touch to the mind for 160 years
With a new name and bigger role, Agra mental institute founded in 1859 is now treating 80,000 patients a year against 20,000 earlier
AGRA: Times have changed and so have the challenges associated with looking after those with mental ailments.
However, the mental hospital in Agra has risen to the occasion as the numbers indicate. The government-run mental institution, which used to treat 20,000 patients a year till a few decades ago, is now looking after 80,000 patients every year on an average, its director Dr Sudhir Kumar says.
The hospital now has a new identity, ‘Institute of Mental Health and Hospital’.
Earlier, most of the cases reported here were of schizophrenia. But with increasing awareness of mental health issues, there are cases of depression and other psychiatric disorders, which are otherwise not talked about much due to a stigma attached to them. The patients come from all parts of the country.
Its new identity is transforming the ‘mental hospital’ into a centre for teaching, training and treatment. The institute is adding to the number of psychiatrists and trained support staff in the country, which has only one psychiatrist on an average for every three lakh people.
HISTORY
The mental asylum was opened in Agra in 1859. It was supervised by the inspector general (Prison). It had no clinical aspect to it at the time.
It served more as an enclosure for keeping those facing a mental disorder, mainly schizophrenia. In 1925, the state government transformed it into a mental hospital. After independence, Indians took charge of the mental hospital, notably Prof KC Dubey, who was at the helm in the 1960s. Soon, the Agra Mental Hospital became an international centre for mental disorder recognised by the World Health Organisation. An international pilot study on schizophrenia was published from Agra Mental Hospital, which was recognised as the only centre in South Asia dealing with the subject.
“Earlier, the concept of mental disorder was confined to schizophrenia, otherwise identified as madness. Despite India being a developing nation, the recovery rate was found better here than in developed nations. The reason for this was the joint family system where a member suffering from a disorder was adjusted and not thrown out,” says Dr Sudhir Kumar.
SC INTERVENTION
Things began deteriorating and superintendents appointed as the in-charge of the mental hospital were not specialist doctors. In 1986, a public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed in connection with the mental hospital in Ranchi after irregularities were found there. Issues related to the Gwalior and Agra mental hospitals were clubbed with the PIL. In 1994, the Supreme Court constituted committees and made these hospitals autonomous bodies. Their names were changed to Mansik Arogyashala on January 30, 1995. In February 2001, the name was changed to the Institute of Mental Health and Hospital to promote teaching, training and professional medical service to patients.
TEACHING, TRAINING AND TREATMENT
“In compliance with Supreme Court directives, the Institute of Mental Health and Hospital is now not only providing professional services to patients facing psychiatric disorders, but is also a major seat of teaching and training with courses, including MD in psychiatry, M Phil in clinical psychology, M Phil in psychological social work, diploma in psychiatric nursing. In 2009, our institute became a centre of excellence with regular OPD, hostel and faculty building. It is second only to Bengaluru in running such a number of courses,” said Dr Kumar. “We are now catering to about 80,000 patients a year . It is an 838- bed hospital with centres for child psychiatry and adolescence, alcohol and drug addiction treatment, geriatric psychiatry, rehabilitation and half-a-home day care centre,” he said.
TRANSFORMING MENTAL HEALTH
“It has been a long journey for the hospital, which celebrated 150 years of its foundation in 2009 and has a self-sufficient treatment system to help mainly those coming from poor background with medicines and free investigation. The OPD is held six days a week. Emergency services are available round the clock. Because of the various courses conducted here, we not only have specialist doctors, but also a well trained battery of support staff who form an integral part of mental health services on such a large scale,” says Dr Kumar who joined as director in 1998.
“Patients come from different parts of the country. Yet, there is a stigma attached to locals turning up at the institute. However, times are changing. Problems like depression, drugs and alcohol addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder being talked about. Patients are brought in by family members. Seminars and conferences of international repute are organised on the institute campus itself providing exposure to students, doctors and staff,” the director said.
› We had to work hard. Locating families of such patients with no proper address was a long-drawn exercise. To stop future occurrences of patients being abandoned, rules were made foolproof and addresses were verified. Yet, there was a long list of patients left unattended DR SUDHIR KUMAR, director
REHABILITATION
The problem of abandoned patients was one of the major issues that the institute faced in the 1990s. The family members used to mention wrong addresses to get rid of mental patients, while many were dropped here in unusual circumstances.
“We had to work hard. Locating families of such patients with no proper address was a long-drawn exercise. To stop future occurrences of patients being abandoned, rules were made foolproof and addresses were verified. Yet, there was a long list of patients left unattended by family members. Now only about a dozen male patients are living on the institute premises,” said Dr Kumar.
“However, there are about 40 female patients whose families’ whereabouts are not known. Their condition had improved but they were in need of care. Instead of pushing them to an uncertain future, we deemed it fit to retain them as a few became mentally retarded in the course of time,” claimed Dr Kumar.