Delhi to get five rehabilitation homes for mentally ill

NEW DELHI: The Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) will run five rehabilitation centres for the mentally ill, where they can stay for free.

NEW DELHI: The Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) will run five rehabilitation centres for the mentally ill, where they can stay for free.

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The ‘half-way homes’ or short-stay centres will provide in-patient lodging and day-care facilities to those who need supervision for a few hours.

They will also provide vocational training to inmates to work at eateries, garment manufacturing units, etc., to help them reintegrate into the society. In some cases, patients can stay there for up to two years.

The centres — two in Sector 3 in Rohini and one each in Sector 22 in Rohini , Sector 3 in Dwarka, and IFC Narela — can admit 120-150 people.

The capacity is only one hundredth of a technical committee’s estimate in 2010, which said 15,000 mentally ill patients require residential rehabilitation facilities in Delhi.

The ce n t r e s h ave be e n unused for nearly two years because Delhi government’s social welfare department could not decide who would run them best.

In a letter dated July 4, the department directed the IHBAS to r un the homes. “Earlier, the institute was only supposed to provide technical support to the social welfare department,” an official said.

“The people coming to halfway homes will need medical care and not just lodging and boarding. The social welfare department does not have the capability to provide specialised and quality care. So the institute was asked to run these homes with funding from the welfare department,” said social welfare department secretary Ashni Kumar.

Since it is now clear who should run the homes, they may be inaugurated soon, he said.

These homes were created on Delhi high court’s direction in 2009 after a public interest litigation was filed. The project has been on hold because the government could not decide who should run them — NGOs with the necessary expertise or government with technical support from the IBHAS.