‘Make plan for rehab of cured mental patients’
MUMBAI: Taking serious note of the fact that hundreds of cured patients are languishing in mental health institutions across the state, the Bombay High Court on Friday directed the State Mental Health Authority to prepare a six-month comprehensive plan for the rehabilitation of cured patients.
The division bench of justice Nitin Jamdar and justice MM Sathaye issued the directive after finding that the State Mental Health Authority did not have any plan for rehabilitation of the patients with mental illness.
The bench also directed the authority to discharge at least 50 to 70 cured patients from each mental health establishment monthly, either to their family homes, halfway homes, or rehabilitation centres.
Additionally, the bench instructed the authority to establish quality and service provision standards for various types of mental health establishments and publish them on its website within four months.
The court issued the directives on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr Harish Shetty, a city psychiatrist, highlighting shortcomings in the implementation of the legal framework for mental health care and the protection of the rights of individuals with mental health problems – the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.
In his petition filed through advocate Pranati Mehra, Dr Shetty had sought urgent collection of data and reports from all regional mental health hospitals in the state regarding details of the patients, especially those languishing in the institutes even after being ready to be discharged, and necessary directions for proper implementation of the statutory framework.
During the PIL hearing, the state government provided patient details from four regional mental hospitals, revealing 1,022 fit patients languishing there. Among them, 208 had untraceable relatives due to address or contact changes.
Additionally, 363 individuals await rehabilitation due to family support issues. Proposals for discharging 451 fit patients were stalled due to family non-responsiveness.
Notably, 475 patients had been in these hospitals for over a decade, with at least 379 found fit for discharge by psychiatrists. The court deemed this situation deplorable.