Research at BALM

Interlinkages between mental health and employment: A case study of socio-economically disadvantaged outpatient clients of The Banyan.

Causative factors leading to the ‘revolving door syndrome’ in the transit care facility of The Banyan.

Meeting on Mental Health Act amendments

Mirjam Dijkxhoorn, Deputy Director, BALM attended a meeting held at Richmond Fellowship Society India in Bangalore on the proposed amendments of the Mental Health Act. The meeting was attended by a broad representation of people involved in the mental health sector, ranging from user-survivors, care givers, psychiatrists, mental health professionals, lawyers to activists. The meeting provided an open environment to discuss the proposed amendments and the kind of changes that are needed in the amendments.

Mental Health Consortium

BALM attended a meeting organised by the IKP Centre for Technology in Public Health (ICTPH) on integrating mental health in the general health clinics that ICTPH is setting up in Thanjavur district. The meeting was attended by Dr. Thara of SCARF and Prof. Ramesh Raghavan of the University of Washington in St. Louis, USA. BALM shared experiences of The Banyan’s work in the community mental health programme and what mental health interventions could be provided at the clinic.

Lecture at Christ University, Bangalore

Mirjam Dijkxhoorn, Deputy Director, BALM held a lecture for Master students in multicultural counselling and community mental health on ‘Faith healing’. Mirjam discussed the concept of faith healing in the context of India and shared The Banyan’s work with the students. The students expressed great interest in the practical experiences of The Banyan in working with faith healers.

VKP training

Chiai Uraguchi, Head Training, facilitated a training programme for VKP community workers on mental health. Porkodi PL, Assistant Director, Community Mental Health Programme, conducted the training. 30 community workers participated, who had already encountered people with mental illness through their work and were more equipped to deal situations after the training. The training topics included the different mental disorders, emergency procedures and procurement of disability cards and allowances.

Volunteers at The Banyan & BALM in August 2010

Oscar, an anthropology student from The Netherlands, finished his work on a documentary on faith healing.