National Mental Health Care Givers’ Training Workshop

Organised by the Center for Advocacy in Mental Health, 27th and 28th June, 2008, BAIF Campus, Pune.

Facilitators: Mr Gábor Gombos and Bhargavi Davar

Background

Care providers, whether they are family members, or the cadres of community care providers, are important constituencies influencing the Indian mental health and disability sector. Being well organized, care providers’ organizations and networks have brought about significant changes in the mental health sector, showing that they are a formidable advocacy force to reckon with.

In the last decade, several individual family care givers, the care givers’ organizations as well as service providers at the community level, have faced acute dilemmas about the protection of persons living with a mental illness and intellectual disability, versus their freedoms. These dilemmas have been particularly intense, against the backdrop of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [CRPD].

Individual users, the few users’ collectives in the country, disability activism and the increasing stories of violations of users’ rights have strengthened the need for a rapid rethinking of values in the mental health sector. Family members and primary care providers in health programs have to humanely deal with users who are open about their dissent to the treatment being given or to their family environment, in a highly resource poor sector.

While the CRPD centers the person with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, applying the CRPD in the immediate context of family and community requires much reflection, process and skill. This is a long term activity, involving the creation of a new set of assumptions and premises, hitherto absent in the mental health sector. It also involves new practices and programs. Family members have agonized over the lack of alternatives and very poor availability of wholesome resources in mental health. There is the realization that it is time to invent new strategies and programs of our own, and not wait for largesse from various agencies.

Objectives of the National caregivers’ training workshop:

- To explore the personal worlds of care givers and their own distress / well being experiences
- To help participants acknowledge their own interests and needs in the process of care giving
- To help care givers identify areas where they can do something in order to make their own lives and their cared ones' more humane and livable
- To invite participants to explore together what the CRPD principles mean for them and for their cared ones

Participants (Max. 30)

Who will find the training program useful:
- Individual family members who are caring for someone with a psychosocial or intellectual disability
- Sponsored participants from family care givers’ organizations dealing with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities
- Service providers in primary health care from various treatment, counselling or psychotherapeutic backgrounds working with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities
- Any one else who sees themselves as having a humane role to play in the care of a person living with a psychosocial or intellectual disability
[For users of mental health services, look for news or write to us about our forthcoming National User Workshop]

Methodology:

In a safe emotional environment, conducive to promote communication and open dialogue, the sessions will use multiple methodologies, including the lecture method, building upon self experience.

Dates: 27th and 28th June, 2009, BAIF Campus, Pune

Registration and fees: A nominal fee of Rs. 250/= is being charged to each participant. DDs may be sent in the name of “Bapu Trust for Research on Mind & Discourse, Pune”. Modest accommodation at the venue is available at Rs. 435/= per day per person. You may want to share your room with another participant to save on cost. Subsidizing accommodation can be considered for people who are unable to support themselves. We will provide reading materials, food and snacks during the workshop days.

Contact for more details about the program: Bhargavi and Maitreyee, CAMH
Logistics: Elizabeth, Yogita, CAMH
Contact details:Center for Advocacy in Mental HealthKapil Villa, Ground Floor, Survey No. 50/4, Plot No. 9,Satyanand Hospital Lane, Kondhwa Khurd, Pune 411 048Ph: 020-26837644, 26837647Emails: info@camhindia.org ; wamhc@dataone.in