A home for 'mentally improved' patients

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday laid the foundation stone of the first halfway home at Dwarka Sector 3. The home will provide social integration and socio-economic rehabilitation to "mentally improved" patients.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday laid the foundation stone of the first halfway home at Dwarka Sector 3. The home will provide social integration and socio-economic rehabilitation to "mentally improved" patients.

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The infrastructure will provide a mechanism for rehabilitation of persons whose mental illnesses are controlled, and who have been discharged from hospitals.

Delhi will have five such homes. Two homes will come up at Sector 3, Rohini, and one each at Sector 22, Rohini, and Narela. The project is aimed at providing vocational training to inmates and counselling to their families.

The government maintained that the concept of halfway homes was new. Delhi social welfare minister Kiran Walia, local MLA Somesh Shokeen and parliamentary secretary to the chief minister Mukesh Sharma, besides the social welfare secretary and social welfare director, were present on the occasion.

Dikshit said "mentally improved" patients take time in social integration. The homes will help them in forgetting me-mories of their mental illnesses.

The cost of the project is Rs. 48 crore.