Accessibility Skip to:
  • Accessibility Policy
  • Main Content
  • Main Menu
  • Contact
History:
You are here:
  • Grand Challenges Canada
  • >
  • Innovations
  • >
  • 0465-04
  • Français
  • About Us
    • About Grand Challenges Canada
    • Annual Letter
    • Annual Report
    • Evaluations
    • Innovations & Results
    • Our People
    • Our Partnerships
    • Employment Opportunities
  • Programs
    • Global Mental Health
    • Humanitarian Grand Challenge
    • Indigenous Innovation Initiative
    • The OPTions Initiative
    • Saving Brains
    • Saving Lives at Birth
    • Stars in Global Health
    • Transition To Scale
  • Funding & Resources
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Service Opportunities
    • Integrated Innovation
    • Gender Equality Portal
    • Policies & Other Resources
  • News & Media
    • News
    • Blog
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • About Grand Challenges Canada
    • Annual Letter
    • Annual Report
    • Evaluations
    • Innovations & Results
    • Our People
    • Our Partnerships
    • Employment Opportunities
    Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting Bold Ideas with Big Impact®.
  • Programs
    • Global Mental Health
    • Humanitarian Grand Challenge
    • Indigenous Innovation Initiative
    • The OPTions Initiative
    • Saving Brains
    • Saving Lives at Birth
    • Stars in Global Health
    • Transition To Scale
    Funded by the Government of Canada and other partners, Grand Challenges Canada funds innovators in low- and middle-income countries and Canada.
  • Funding & Resources
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Service Opportunities
    • Integrated Innovation
    • Gender Equality Portal
    • Policies & Other Resources
    The bold ideas Grand Challenges Canada supports integrate science and technology, social and business innovation – known as Integrated Innovation®.
  • News & Media
    • News
    • Blog
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Contact Us
    One of the largest impact-first investors in Canada, and with a feminist investment approach, Grand Challenges Canada has supported a pipeline of over 800 innovations in more than 80 countries.
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • Français
Grand Challenges Canada

Bold Ideas with Big Impact®

Browse our Innovations and Results

Ending abuses of patients with mental disorders in India

IMG_3509

IMG_3509

FacebookTwitterLinked In

Start Date: 01/02/2014- End Date: 30/11/2016


Project Lead(s): Soumitra Pathare, Akwatu Khenti

Ending the restraint, seclusion, neglect and abuse — physical, sexual, and emotional — of mental health patients is the goal of a project in India’s Gujarat state nominated for a Grand Challenges Canada grant of up to CDN $2 million.

Working in six facilities — three mental health hospitals, two psychiatric units in general hospitals, and the psychiatric unit at a district general hospital, which together employ 220 mental health staff serving almost 50,000 in patients and out-patients per year, along with a control group of three other facilities for comparison purposes, the Indian Law Society aims to improve facility environments; train health workers, patients and families on human rights; build support programmes delivered by non-specialists; and introduce policies and mechanisms in the facilities to protect against inhumane, degrading treatment, violence and abuse — including the use of restraints.

An Internet-based platform will help deliver the training and create collaborative areas within which service communities can share experiences and results.

The project is based on the World Health Organization’s “QualityRights Tool Kit” and builds on its success over the past three years in Spain, Palestine, Greece and Somaliland.

In Somaliland, for example, pre- intervention conditions at one hospital included restraining patients with chains, with no advice on a treatment plan and “extremely poor” hygiene standards.

The QualityRights intervention led to long-term patients being released from the hospital, of which several found employment, the appointment of additional health professionals, improved hygiene standards, and an end to the practice of restraining patients with chains.

Similarly, in Spain’s northern Asturias province, an assessment of 28 facilities highlighted “the failure to obtain informed consent for admission and treatment, failure to use treatment protocols and guidelines, lack of psycho-education for service users and their families, and failure to provide legal advice and information about complaints mechanisms.”

The QualityRights intervention in Asturias led to a transformation in the service culture, among many results — even to a Bill of Rights for people with mental disorders and a Mental Health Commission to advise the Ministry of Health.

Says project leader Soumitra Pathare, of the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society: “Mental health services in India face many similar problems and barriers to quality care as Somaliland and Spain do, and experiences of NGOs and mental health professionals working in Gujarat suggest that, with a sustained QualityRights intervention, outcomes could be substantial.”

Adds co-principal investigator Akwatu Khenti, of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: “CAMH has extensive experience and expertise in anti-stigmatizing, evidence-based care that will inform this project — an initiative with global significance because of the exemplary collaborative / participatory involvement of patients and families at the core of the approach.”

Image Gallery

  • IMG_3509
  • IMG_3520
  • IMG_3743
  • IMG_3697
  • IMG_3609
  • IMG_3556
  • IMG_3751

Stay in touch with this innovator

  • Organization Website
  • Innovation Overview
    Program

    Global Mental Health - Round 2

    Institution

    Indian Law Society

    Institution Country

    India

    Implementation Country

    India

    Implementation Region

    South Asia

    Priority

    Mental Neurological and Substance Use Disorders, Non-communicable Diseases, Social Justice, Social Protection, Stigma

    Platform

    Behaviour Change Communication

Grand Challenges Canada’s programs are primarily undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada.

Government of Canada
  • Flickr
  • Youtube
  • Linked In
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Fluxx Technical Support
  • Privacy Policy
  • Website Legal Terms and Disclaimer