Maharashtra: Nearly 6,000 patients with mental ailments abandoned in 5 years

As per data from January 2016 to September 2021, procured by The Indian Express, a total of 5,877 patients with mental ailments have been abandoned by their relatives in the four regional mental hospitals— Pune, Thane, Raigad and Nagpur. Nagpur, with 3,829 such patients, accounts for nearly 60 per cent of these abandoned patients, followed by Ratnagiri (1,674), Pune (361) and Thane (13).

“We get around 1,400 admissions annually, of which one-third are abandoned. These patients can be classified in two categories — those who are left by their families and the others are ‘unknown’, with no families, who are rescued by police or social workers,” said senior psychiatrist Dr Praveen Navkhare from Nagpur Government Regional Mental Hospital.

The centrality of Nagpur and the innumerable railway lines from across the country that intersect at Nagpur junction are deemed as reasons for a high number of abandoned patients being found in the city.

Dr Purushottam Madavi, medical superintendent of the hospital, said, “The Nagpur Division is in the central region of India, so we get patients from other states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, among others. Many of them have been staying at the hospital for over 20 years.”

Most of these patients have been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar mood disorder, epilepsy and dementia, among other conditions.

As per the existing rules, the hospital informs the local police every time an abandoned individual is brought in. However, the police are able to trace the families of less than a third of such patients.
“These patients don’t remember their native places or mobile numbers. They even fail to provide landmarks so it becomes a challenging job to find the families. Only in 20-30 per cent of the cases, police are able to identify the kin,” said Dr Abhijit Phadnis, former medical superintendent of the Pune hospital.

The Supreme Court, in a 2017 order, directed all states and union territories to set up rehabilitation homes for abandoned and treated patients, patients who don’t need hospitalisation, and homeless patients. The states were asked to comply within one year. But even after four years, the directive hasn’t been compiled with.

In 2019, The Indian Express had reported that as many as 190 mentally ill patients across the state, who were being treated but had no home to return to, or had been abandoned by their families, were moved to beggar’s homes, old age homes, women’s shelters and a former leprosy home.

“Under the social justice department, there are plans to shift these patients to ‘half-way homes’ under private partnership. An memorandum of understanding has been signed with a private company regarding it but it is still on paper,” said an officer from the health department.

Mohammed Tarique, director of Koshish, a Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) field action project on homelessness and destitution, said, “These are patients, not criminals who have been left on their own at these beggar homes. Under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, patients must be provided with regular counselling and require close monitoring of medication. The beggar homes aren’t equipped to do it.”

Hospitals have a ‘visitors’ committee’ which comprises a district judge, civil surgeon and district health officer among other experts, who review the health documents of the patients and decide if the patient is fit enough to be discharged from the hospital. Once the committee gives a green signal to recovered patients, the hospitals drop them to the doorsteps of their houses but often, the family members refuse to accept them.

“Due to lack of sensitisation, the families refuse to welcome the patients. Then, we seek help from the local bodies, including the panchayat, to convince the families,” said Dr Navkhare.