Mumbai, Dec 19 – The Bombay High Court has expressed displeasure on functioning of mental health institutions in the state over lack of coordination between the government departments because of which persons, who have been cured but are not accepted by their families, have to remain in mental hospitals.
The court raised the concern when informed that three inmates of the Thane Mental Hospital had to be returned to the institution, instead of the Halfway Homes, as their families refused to accept them.
A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Manjusha Deshpande observed that it expects a broad-based coordination framework and asked the principal secretary of the Public Health Department, who is chairperson of the State Mental Health Authority, and the principal secretary of the Persons with Disabilities Welfare Department to hold a joint meeting to address the issue.
The court was hearing a petition filed by psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, through his advocate Pranati Mehra, highlighting the plight of patients languishing in mental hospitals despite being cured or even when they are not seriously mentally ill.
