Journey of a social worker

The Mentally Retarded

My first visit was in hospital for mental care, I went to the Hospital but after going there I realized that I was not as brave enough to meet the mentally ill in the hospital.

It needed lot of courage to face the mental ill for the first time, I was taken to the female ward which was always closed with a very big gate. There was a small gate through which I was led inside and I was handed over to the nursing staff in the ward and the doors were close from outside. The nurse told me that she would open it only after my field visit hours were over, I was scared, I was scared because I didn't know how this woman would react because the women were out of their wards roaming freely and some of them were even approaching me I really didn't know what to say I was waiting and thinking on how to talk but before I could do anything the news came that it was not a posting in the female ward but it was in the family ward.

I was escorted to the family ward with the nurse, it seemed to be much easier because with every patient either of the family was already there.

As it was our graduation so we had not much work to do in the hospital for mental care our work was to observe the doctors and the paramedic on how to talk to the parents, the patients. And what is the admission procedure, what is the discharge procedure and so on.

Initially it was very saddening to see so many people who were launched in hospital for mental care for years together as it was government hospital the family is used to dump the patients in the hospital giving wrong addresses and abandon them. We were told to speak to patients who had been there for years together cured but, still continue to be in the hospitals as they had no home to go. We were given a task to identify if these women remember something about their home or their native place, their village and try to locate their address. Like many other batches we also failed because this woman had left the house years together and that too when they were not well. So, they hardly remember the locality name of the village, the name of the town most of them remember the nearest family members those whom they loved the most and continue to live only with the hope that someday the family would come back to take them.

My talking to people trying to understand one month just fast like 1 hour and it was time that we visited the fourth organization that is Rani Channamma Devi hospital for physically handicapped

It was the very big hospital catering to thousands of people across many States. People used to come to the hospital from different parts of the country for treatment as the treatment was free of cost and surgeries were performed by expert doctors. Hospital constructed many years ago for correcting the physical deformities of people.