What we saw when we entered the building was shocking beyond anything I had ever seen before. The men’s ward consisted of beds side by side with little or no gaps in between them. The plastic mattresses had no sheets and some were torn with the foam coming out. We didn’t go into the women’s ward, but from what I could see the conditions were not much better. The room where Anjali hold their workshops is part dining hall, part open space and part dump for old beds and mattresses that were decaying and gathering dust and rubbish. However, there were cleans mats laid out in the open space for us and the Anjali participants to sit on. We joined their circle and before long the images of the wards and the state of the hospital vanished as were serenaded with beautiful poetry, song and dance. Poems about freedom and about the homes that they no longer see. Each person had a different talent to show us. Some of the people who presented to us seemed, to me, like they would be capable of living in the community with some support, but instead they were imprisoned in this under funded and under equipped hospital. As we left one women ran up to us with her food tray in hand, she said something in Bengali and I asked the worker to translate, she had said: “ I want to go home”.

Working with the government for systemic change

I was particularly impressed with Ratnaboli Ray’s decision to work in partnership with the Government in order to make lasting changes that would continue to be implemented and developed. Anjali’s work goes beyond the hospitals. As well as advocacy within the government, their work is now being lead by women in communities who having undergone intensive training through Anjali. These women are leading the campaign to bring awareness to the issue and informing on how people with psychosocial disabilities do not necessarily need to be kept in mental health hospitals but with the right support and treatment can remain in or return to their homes and their own communities.

It was both a shocking and inspiring experience for me. The image of the hospital will stay with me and is not something I think or hope I will ever come across in the UK. However, as someone who works with vulnerable people in the UK I was excited and inspired at how forward thinking Anjali are in their methodology. Their work is not only innovative, it is sustainable in that it is a model that not only alleviates trauma and develops creativity in individuals but is also creating leaders in communities to change the way people think about mental health in India.

Amy Barbor.