Yes. We Can

Snippets from a civil servant's experience—pre- and post-retirement

- S. M. Vijayanand

MENTAL health, for a long time, belonged to the realm of charity and NGO activism, with the government providing treatment and hospital facilities and sometimes homes for stay.

But over the last 25 years or so, there has been an increasing realisation that the rights of the mentally ill need to be respected and nurtured, and their dignity and agency must be accepted and acted upon. Some of the personal experiences in pushing mental health initiatives in different stages of my career, while in service and post-retirement, are summed up below:

As a young officer in the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) of Attappadi in Kerala, my field visits convinced me that the prevalence of mental health issues was higher among deprived tribal communities mainly due to the breakup of the traditional systems, influx of exploitative outside settlers, and loss of material and cultural resources—all resulting in alienation and hopelessness. At that time, my only solution was to identify a motivated doctor with the Government Mental Hospital in Thrissur and follow the conventional approach of treating those affected, including some of them in hospitals—but with a personal touch.