Dignity in Mental Health

Here is small story…..

” Few years ago there was a ‘ mad woman ‘ who was a wandering lunatic . She could never speak nor beg . She used to eat things picked up from a municipality dustbin , and sleep with stray dogs & pigs . Children used to torment her and adults used loathe her  .

One day she came to a town where a noble cobbler was living . He took pity on her and started feeding her . His  wife supported him and they took her to their hut and started looking after her . A responsible local paper journalist came to know about the story and published it in his paper .

A psychiatrist’s wife noticed the news and spoke to her husband . The hospital in which the psychiatrist works took an initiative to locate her and treat her freely . She was admitted and treated in the private psychiatric hospital for a year and she improved .

She turned out to be a graduate from a decent family .They searched  for her family but family refused her .

The noble cobbler accepted her as his  god given daughter and gave shelter again . She was moved and tried to help him . So she got a temporary post in a government school and now she a teacher there ”

A fairy tale where everyone is happy in the end , isn’t it? But this ‘too good to be true ‘ story is a real story . The lady’s name is Amuda . The cobbler who supported her is Venkateshwarlu . The hospital is our hospital ASHA PSYCHITRIC HOSPITAL , which is biggest psychiatric hospital in private sector in A.P and TELANGANA .

The theme for this year’s World Mental Health day is ” DIGNITY IN MENTAL HEALTH” .There is lot more in mental health than just stress or depression about which everyone fancies to talk . But when it comes to really showing some dignity nobody does.The cobbler Venkateshwarlu in spite of his poverty , lack of education did something just out of humanity.He ,probably,  had never heard about world mental health day .

For this day we actually celebrated mental health week and conducted may awareness programs . We asked one international player ( the player’s mother has been under treatment of our hospital for past few years ) to be our ambassador for this week ,hoping that celebrities would bring more of propaganda. Not so surprisingly they turned us down at final moment ( probably due to fear of exposure ).  It is one example to tell that education or social profile have nothing to do with the actual awareness .

So this time we decided to arrange some felicitation to Venkateshwarlu for proving that humanity still exists .

There was also a skit depicting the same story .( Screenplay , dialogues , direction ,make up and main role by me , me, me, me, me ) . The skit was liked by everyone ( I tried to make the dialogues as heart melting as possible ) Some even cried at the end.

Most of the audience told me that i exactly looked and acted like a patient ( I am not sure whether it is a compliment or a humble way to say that you are a crack )

I am really happy with the response for the programs and to be part of it  . My senior consultants were really cooperative and whatever i told them as a director. I was soooo stubborn as a director and did not allow anyone to touch or change my dialogues.

The program went really well and i want to thank everyone..