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The Centre for Mental Health, Social Care and Livelihoods (CMHSCL) and the Last Mile Mental Health and Social Care Praxis Lab were inaugurated in Chennai on Sunday, September 27.
The ventures are led by the Chennai-based NGO The Banyan, The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), and the Aaladamara Foundation.
The unveiling of the mental health centre and lab were done by Deanna Jeejeebhoy, patron of the centre, and N Ram of The Hindu.
The Last Mile Mental Health and Social Care Praxis Lab was founded by Vandana Gopikumar and colleagues from BALM, Boston Medical Center, Vrije Universiteit, and Madras School of Social Work. It is aimed at studying how social determinants and structural violence, such as poverty, homelessness, and social exclusion, are experienced by people and how they can be considered in mental health care practice.
The CMHSCL brings clinical, social, and economic responses together, providing intensive case management, safe spaces, and short-stay community units, a Social Care Fund, livelihood support, capacity building for mental health professionals, and evaluation intended to inform policy.
The Last Mile Mental Health and Social Care Praxis Lab will mainly focus on social experiences connected to mental health, including shame, humiliation, rejection, dependence, and eroded trust.
N Ram said that information asymmetry can weaken the administration and effectiveness of social care for people with severe mental illness, as the demographics are distributed into different inequalities of class, caste, education, gender, geography, and institutional power.
Retired IAS officer SM Vijayanand said that village panchayats and self-help groups are the frontline of service delivery and highlighted their role in creating awareness and volunteering among them. Nagarajan IAS, Commissioner of Central Taxes, spoke about the prominence of different government agencies, mentioning his years of work with the homeless and why care must be sustainable and well-rounded.
Preetha Krishnadas, Co-CEO of BALM, said health is shaped by the living conditions of people. Mrinalini Ravi stated that the Praxis Lab will examine the psychological needs of individuals. Archana Padmaker, Co-CEO, The Banyan, shared that their organisation has witnessed a number of cases of sexual and physical violence, associated with homelessness.
Actor-director Revathi highlighted that people can be brought together via storytelling, which in turn can build communications and social alliances.
This story was written by a student interning with TNM.
