National Strategy for Inclusive and Community Based Living for Persons with Mental Health Issues

This report was published in 2019 by the Hans Foundation, a charitable trust based in New Delhi. It contains the results of a survey of patients at government-run mental healthcare facilities in India, to study their needs and suggest ways to enable sustainable and inclusive community living.The Foundation set up a Task Force comprising of government institutes, hospitals, and other organisations, which surveyed 13,613 ‘inpatient clients’ at 42 psychiatric establishments from August 2018 to February 2019. The team examined establishments across 24 states with varied numbers of hospitals surveyed in each – for instance, as many as four were studied in West Bengal. The average age of the participants in the survey was 45.88 years; the youngest participant was 12 years while the oldest participants were 99 years old.About 36.25 per cent (4,935 patients) of those residing in the surveyed government-run facilities had been living there for over a year. The report states that such high rates reflect “the institutionalisation of people with mental illness.” The lack of adequate rehabilitation measures segregates and alienates patients from the world outside the health facility. This keeps them from accessing socio-cultural opportunities and exercising the right to dignified living.This 177-page report is divided into eight chapters: Executive Summary (chapter 1); Background (chapter 2); Methods (chapter 3); Key Findings (chapter 4); Strategy to address Long-stay in State Mental Health Hospitals in India (chapter 5); Action Plan (chapter 6); Conclusions (chapter 7); Glossary and References (chapter 8).