Ongoing Projects

Home for Psycho-Social Rehabilitation of Mentally Ill Persons
(Run By : Udhavum Ullangal)

Persons unaware of their self-care and their presence, with empty belly and furious look, wandering aimless without any destination in the streets live their hopeless life towards a dark future.  They fight with street dogs & pigs for a little food and drink drainage water for thirst.  Disappointment, ignorance, poverty makes them non-persons, consciously ignored by others neither by the passersby nor by the onlookers.  Love and passion, care and concern are very essential for them that lead to enable themselves to live with dignity.

Rise of Home :
With the hope of evolving the life of mentally ill persons, who were spending their life in the streets, UDHAVUM ULLANGAL made serious efforts and started the “HOME FOR PSYCHO-SOCIAL REHABILITATION OF MENTALLY ILL PERSONS” on 30.04.2006 at Tirupattur as per the Tamil Nadu Government’s G.O. issued on August 30, 2005 to establish a home mainly for the homeless, destitute mentally ill persons who were wandering in the streets with mental illness and psycho-social disorders.

The home is of the first type in the state.

Udhavum Ullangal is loyal for regenerating human lives and focused to provide care and rehabilitation services to the street-wandering mentally ill persons, in promoting humanitarian values.

Executive Committee:
Based on the G.O, an Executive Committee was formed, headed by the District Collector (President), District Disabled Rehabilitation Officer (Secretary), Udhavum Ullangal President (Joint Secretary).  The home is functioning well together with the  co-ordination of “THE BANYAN”, Chennai, and Christian Medical College Psychiatric Department with their team doctors.  The Committee members meet once in 3 months to chalk out plans for rehabilitation and progress of the mentally ill persons.

Objectives :

To elevate public awareness and gather public support for the cause.
To ensure the mentally ill persons to live with self-determination and make them stable to lead a normal life.
To create awareness in the community and enable the mentally ill persons to re-integrate themselves into the society.
To empower the mentally ill persons economically through vocational training.
Provides counseling facilities for individuals in emotional distress and facing stressful situations.
Organizes camps and awareness programmes on mental illness.

Rescue :
Wandering persons with abnormal behaviour and mental illness in adverse circumstances are rescued from the different parts of the streets, in and around the district, after receiving phone calls and information from the public.  Intimation about the rescued mentally ill person is immediately sent to the local police station and administrative authorities.

Since from its inception, more than 200 wandering homeless-destitute mentally ill persons were rescued from the streets and admitted in the home for their further treatment and rehabilitation.

Treatment and Care :          
After the immediate process of rescue, the process of treatment and care starts.  As such, 90 mentally ill persons (48 Men and 42 Women) are residing at home and they are provided with the bare necessities for their survival such as nutritious food, clean clothes, safe shelter, proper care in a hygienic environment and entertainment.  Regular Assessment and Medication is done.  Also, they are provided with industrial training, rehabilitative therapies like group therapy, behavioural therapy, occupational therapy, daily living skills, yoga, meditation, counseling and overall rehabilitative measures.

Daily-Living :
Special care on hygiene and self-care is highly concentrated.  They are trained to wake up at early morning, start their self care & hygiene, have their tea, involve in physical exercise, do prayer, have their breakfast and medication.  They do vocational training for certain hours.  After that, they finish their lunch and medication, take rest for an hour, again start their vocational training, do review, news reading, moral science, social skills training, play games till evening, have their tea, snacks, at night they have their dinner and medication and then they go to sleep.

Industrial Training :
The residents are trained to involve in craft work, paper cover production, art work.  They produce handicrafts and sell them.  Through this training, they earn money and they themselves deposit their money in their individual S/B Accounts. Stalls were put up to sell the handicraft items. 

Street-Cleaning & Gardening :
The residents come forward to equip themselves in cleaning the unwanted bushes and wastage/garbage in the streets that were dropped by the public which creates severe environmental pollution.  They happily involve in this sort of work.  After cleaning they plant saplings and maintain the garden regularly.  This clean and green process is carried out every four days in a week. This makes them self-dependent after being discharged.

Independence :
The inmates go out for shopping as they are trained to do self-purchase which gives them a feeling of independence.

Reunion with Families :
Families of the mentally ill persons under rehab process are traced out.  The social stigma attached to mental illness, and the bad experiences they faced, makes the family members not to accept them.  Also, they feel them as a burden.  We encourage them to accept and create betterment in their lives.  After rehabilitation, they will be made to re-unite with their families and communities.  Also, follow-up is made.

As such more than 100 residents from this home were discharged and were merged with their family members and they lead their life in good positions.

Last but not the least . . . .
Moreover, the home needs more strength from volunteers and well-wishers to give noble support which will be a driving force for making this world a more humane and caring place.  Join with us in this great endeavour.