21-June-2012 It celebrates its second anniversary
MADURAI : Legal Aid Clinic, established here to provide legal counsel to families with mentally ill persons and to sensitise judicial officers and lawyers to the problems faced by such households, celebrated its second anniversary on Tuesday. Established jointly by the M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation and Madurai District Legal Services Authority in April 2010, the clinic had provided legal support to 325 cases, a majority of them involving how to avail free treatment for persons with mental illness, guardianship of the patients and obtaining disability certificates. Addressing the celebrations, Justice S. Rajeswaran, Judge of the Madras High Court, praised the work of lawyers who were part of the Legal Aid Clinic's panel. Justice G.M. Akbar Ali, Judge of the Madras High Court, said that the services of the clinic must be expanded to all districts in the State, given the widespread nature of mental illness and the huge lack of awareness among parents in how to deal with it. Justice S. Vimala, Judge of the Madras High Court, recalled a World Health Organisation (WHO) study which estimated that 450 million persons were suffering from mental illness and that around one lakh such persons were committing suicide annually. She also noted that Tamil Nadu occupied a premier position in treating persons with psychiatric illness. K.S.P. Janardhan Babu, Assistant Director of Chellamuthu Trust, said that of India's billion-strong population, mental illness affected around 70 million people of whom only 10 per cent received any form of psychiatric treatment. Despite at least 2.5 lakh new cases of mental illness manifesting every year, the country had only a total of 42 hospitals in this field with 20,893 beds in the Government hospitals and 5,096 beds in the private sector. By the year 2020, he said, the WHO had predicted that mental illness would become the second largest global health problem. C. Ramasubramanian, State Nodal Officer, District Mental Health Programme; Gohul Doss, Principal District Judge and Chairman of the Madurai District Legal Services Authority; its Secretary, Jacintha Martin; M. Govindan, Government Special Pleader, and R. Rajakumari, executive director of Chellamuthu Trust spoke. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article3553080.ece -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
