Six recovered mental health patients from other States to be taken back home from Kerala

They were rehabilitated at Thiruvananthapuram District Panchayat’s Prathyasha care home in Venjaramoodu

Twenty-nine-year-old Rohan (name changed) from Nawapara in Chattisgarh reached the Central Railway Station in Thiruvananthapuram just before the first COVID-19-induced lockdown was clamped down. He had boarded a train to Kerala after hearing from a friend about the work opportunities available here. But, without knowing the language and unable to make himself understood, he soon ended up in the custody of the police, who suspected him to be having mental health issues too. Soon, he ended up in the Government Mental Health Centre at Oolampara, from where in October he was taken to the Thiruvananthapuram District Panchayat’s Prathyasha care home in Venjaramoodu for rehabilitating those who have partially or fully recovered from mental illnesses. The care home, set up in 2010, has been providing shelter for 22 people, who are at various stages of recovering from mental health issues, including a handful who have recovered fully. Over the past few months, the district panchayat and the care home authorities have been trying to track down the relatives of six of them, including Rohan, who are from other States. With that endeavour becoming somewhat successful, the care home and project officials will be taking them back to their homes next week.