Chennai: Mentally ill patient reunited with family

Chennai: It was an emotional moment for Jakhar, a 40-year-old man from Rajasthan who was reunited with his family. He had been sent to the Institute of mental health seven months ago as a wandering mentally ill patient under Mental Health Act.

Jakhar was admitted in IMH and was initially on evaluation, and later managed by a team of psychiatrists.

The evaluations revealed that Jakhar had low intelligence quotient and he was also unable to communicate with others.

“At the time of admission, he was not maintaining eye contact, he was not able to tell his address and personal details due to his illness. He was then constantly evaluated and managed by a team of psychiatrists. His personal information was collected in spite of his low intelligence level after he became stable and started communicating to the doctors,” said Dr P Poorna Chandrika, director, Institute of Mental Health.

Language barrier was another issue in collecting the information from the patient, as he could not understand Tamil. We got volunteers from non-governmental organisations who were from Rajasthan and his personal information was collected in spite of his low intelligence level, added Dr Poorna.

The relatives of the patient were traced from Alwar district in Rajasthan. The post-graduate students from IMH contacted the family.

Meanwhile, his father and brother reached Chennai on Wednesday, and reunited him with the family and sent back home on Wednesday.