The psychiatrist helping mentally ill people left to wander India's streets.

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Dr Vatwani has spent three decades reuniting patients with mental health problems with their families.

Walls of the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation’s residential treatment facility, covered with pictures of reunited patients. Photograph: Anne Pinto-Rodrigues/The Guardian
▼ To the horror of the watching doctors, a young man on a Mumbai street picked up a broken coconut shell, scooped up dirty gutter water with it, and drank.
“I still recall the scene vividly,” says 61-year-old Mumbai psychiatrist Dr Bharat Vatwani. “My wife, Smitha – also a psychiatrist – and I, watched from across the street.”
Shocked by what they had just witnessed, the couple took the young man to their new private clinic and began treating him for schizophrenia. For Vatwani it was the beginning of a three-decade-long commitment to treating the “wandering” of India– mentally ill people left to roam on city streets – and reuniting them with their families.
As the patient recovered, he began to speak in English and recall bits of information about his family. This enabled Vatwani to locate his kin in the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, a significant distance from Mumbai. “We realised then, that there was no organisation in Mumbai, or for that matter in India, which rehabilitated wandering mentally ill people,” Vatwani says. This incident, which occurred more than 30 years ago, was a turning point in the lives of the psychiatrists.
According to a 2015-16 surveycommissioned by India’s government, nearly 15% of Indian adults suffer from some form of mental illness. This translates to more than 180 million people in the country, though only a minuscule number have access to the necessary medical facilities. There is a severe shortage of psychiatrists, especially in rural areas. According to Vatwani, “Over 80% of the government hospitals in India do not have a psychiatrist. One of the main reasons being that many Indian psychiatrists prefer to move abroad, for better prospects. There are less than 4,000 practising psychiatrists in a nation of over a billion people!”
Of the people who do have access to professional help, very few are willing to seek it. Mental illness continues to be largely a taboo subject in India.
Soon after the first reunion, in 1988, Vatwani and his wife, Dr Smitha Vatwani, set up the (▪ ▪ ▪)

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ssangra

Theres still hope for this wicked world !

mazherali

Taboo and associated superstitions prevent people from seeking help. Also families tend to give up due to the stress of dealing with these patients. Educating healthcare providers, general population is the only way forward.

asr335704

There are still good people around the world. Such stories light up the hopes in our heart that all is not lost yet.
Hats off to this guy and great work indeed.