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From October 2006 to January 2008, 15 monthly Outreach camps were conducted at Sipajhar in Darrang district, in association with a local NGO (SATRA). The response had been overwhelming and beyond any expectation resulting in the establishment of ‘Ashroy’- ‘Day Rehabilitation Centre for the Mentally Disabled’, which was inaugurated in August’2007. With training and resource material support from Ashadeep, this centre has progressed reasonably well.
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The Outreach camps initiated by Ashadeep in June 2007, in collaboration with ‘the ant’ at Rowmari was perhaps the first initiative in modern mental health intervention in the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) area, consisting of four districts. Till date there is no other Psychiatric interventions available in the whole area, and most people had no idea, that medical interventions could help their relatives who are behaving in an ‘abnormal’ way. The impact of this initiative can be gauged from the fact that, 18 camps were conducted during June,2007 to May,2009, where 290 patients received treatment from Ashadeep. In one of the camps, 14 patients had come all the way from the Bhutan border, and they were from just one refugee camp. The volunteers of ‘the ant’ who are all health workers working with malaria and stomach ailments have been trained on the basics of mental health interventions by Ashadeep. The Manual ‘Working in Mental Health with the Community’ now also translated to Assamese and also the posters and pamphlets developed by us in the Bodo language have helped.
After 18 Outreach camps at Raumari (Chirang), our partner organization ‘the ant’ has been sufficiently empowered in the area of mental health to continue with the camps on their own, with some support from Ashadeep.
As the Outreach intervention in Mental Health at Rowmari has been the only access to Psychiatric Care in the Bodoland Territorial Council areas, there has been increasing demands from the population of Kokrajhar, the Headquarters of BTC to initiate such a programme. We felt that such a move would help in opening the eyes of the Council Administration which is based there.
We have tied up with two organizations NERSWN in Kokrajhar since March,2009 and Bosco Reach Out in Kumarikata since October,2009 where outreach mental health camps are being conducted regularly.
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