Civil Society Demands Shelter for Mentally Challenged

APP

Islamabad: The civil society has demanded all the stakeholders establish a shelter home and facilitation center for mentally challenged children in Islamabad.

Member of the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR), Manzoor Mashi, said that the government’s residential facility for mentally challenged children does not exist in the capital.

The purpose of setting up this shelter home was to provide sanctuary to mentally challenged persons, besides providing them with the latest facilities, including a free medical, legal, and safe environment to prosper.

NCHR Mashi added that shelter homes would help mitigate the suffering and frequent humiliation of children with disabilities.

The data of NCHR based on the registration form for each province includes the date of registration of each facility, the type of ownership, the number of beds, the number of full-time psychiatrists on staff, the number of clinical psychologists on staff, the number of nurses, the average number of patients, and the types of disorders treated at the facility, he said.

He, however, said that the data actually received was far less than what was requested. Most problematic was that in ICT, across 10 facilities that had anywhere from 0 to 45 beds each, none employed a full-time psychiatrist.

The child rights activist said they all employed exactly one part-time psychiatrist, which seems to contradict the MHO 2001. Under the MHO 2001, conditions for assessment, admission, and discharge of patients require the recommendation of a psychiatrist.

Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provided only the names of mental health facilities and some numbers for beds. Sindh did not submit any data.

He further added that Balochistan provided all of the information requested for one facility, the Balochistan Institute of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Quetta.