SHILLONG: “Depression” in mentally ill patients is among the many collateral damages, both major and minor, of the COVID-19 pandemic.
B Mawlong, additional superintendent at Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Science or MIMHANS, said the lockdown has kept the patients away from their relatives, who are unable to visit, and this is making them depressed.
“We allow only one visitor to meet them. But in the lockdown period, the relatives hardly come,” she said.
For the MIMHANS inmates, lockdown does not make much difference behind the locked iron gates. So a visitor now and then is a refreshing change. There are also many without a family.
The hospital is taking extra care to not only mitigate the patients’ anxiety but also ensure their safety and hygiene. Recently, MIMHANS received two male patients, who were brought in by police, and they have been kept in the isolation ward.
“They are kept separately so that they cannot mingle with the existing inmates. They were abandoned… The patients are asymptomatic. There are separate staff to look after them,” said Mawlong, adding that the hospital is not taking any chances.
The two patients will be in isolation for 28 days. There are 116 inmates, including the two, of whom 50 are women.
Making the patients understand the emergency-like situation is not an easy task but the medical staff at MIMHANS try their best. They keep the patients engaged in various tasks like making envelopes and paper bags.
“They respect the staff. Sometimes, they ask me why I did not meet them. But we do not know when they will turn violent,” said Mawlong.
When asked how the hospital authorities explain about the current crisis, the senior doctor said it is easy with some patients but there are some who do not understand.
“Teaching them is difficult. Some of them want to go home and we tell them that it cannot be done and they understand. For some who do not understand, explaining the situation will make them more confused,” she explained.
The doctors even have to be careful before giving masks to the patients, Mawlong said.
The state government has also been “very supportive and has been providing some of the requirements to fight COVID-19”. (Contd on P-10)
Away from home…
(Contd from P-1) “There is no scarcity. Medicines are also being taken care of. There are around 200 PPE,” she said. There are 110 health workers, including four doctors and a psychiatrist. There are social workers as well.
Ready to be released
Most of the patients are abandoned and brought in by police. Mawlong said the government is taking care of those who are mentally fit to be discharged and 15 such patients have been taken to SANKER.
A shelter home for the mentally fit persons is being set up by the Social Welfare department.
Apart from local people, some of the inmates are from Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha who were found in Motphran or Police Bazar.
The patients are categorised as those who go for voluntary admissions, brought by relatives, order of magistrates and there are under-trial prisoners (around 4-5 of them).
As for tracing the relatives of the patients, Mawlong said the hospital traced the relative of a patient to Tripura. Last year, the hospital discharged 10 patients.
At the same time, she expressed concern that the patients are avoided by their relatives.