April 2005 - MHID delivers a mental health policy training package to support the development of grassroots mental health work in Kollam District, Kerala in India.
The centerpiece of the work was a two day policy workshop covering topics such as medication and policy, human rights and campaigning. The workshop had been designed by the forum during Ray Rowden's previous trip to Kerala in January 2005. MHID was pleased to test a new, user designed training package in India and this will enable the organisation to offer tailor made training and support solutions to grassroots organisations around the world. A new page on our website provides more details of the range of training available from MHID.
Outcomes from the visit include the development of a new leaflet raising awareness of mental health from the user perspective and the creation of a list of 10 questions that users and their families should ask their doctor or psychiatrist about their treatment. This initiative arose from consultations undertaken by MHID that revealed that revealed that users were regular over medicated by the psychiatric services, often with a cocktail of medicines with contra-indications.
Local policy coordinator GV Nair stated "...the forum builds such strong relationships in the community. People trust each other and are able to work together to promote mental health...".
The experimental micro-credit for mental health project continues to develop well. The scheme empowers users to manage a small budget of micro-credit which they then loan out to people with mental health problems to enable them to establish small businesses and enterprise. The scheme is run as a demonstration of an alternative model of mental health employment and lessons are taken from the work and incorporated in to policy proposals. It is the long term aim to convince the Kerala state authority of the benefits of extending such a programme to a wider community. So far a number of users have obtained work and loans are beginning to be repaid in to the capital pot.
MHID also used the India trip to consult with local stakeholders and members of the NGO community regarding the new PaPA (Policy and Public Action in Mental Health) programme.
