Changing the emotional response towards women with mental illness is what mental health activist Ratnaboli Ray, and her organisation, Anjali are trying to do. Here in conversation with PatientsEngage:
A WHO report mentions that gender differences occur particularly in the rates of common mental disorders like depression and anxiety. These disorders, in which women predominate, constitute a serious public health problem. How do you address the concept of gender parity as far…
Dipti Bhatia is the deputy director of Vidya Sagar, a Chennai based organization working with persons with multiple disabilities. Undeterred by her own congenital visual impairment, she strongly advocates inclusion and empowerment of women with disability. Have you observed any gender difference as far as policies and practices are concerned in Special Needs Schools like Vidya Sagar? There is no gender discrimination from the school as far as policies and practices are concerned.…
Reshma Valliappan, also known as Val Resh, is an artist-activist for a number of issues related to mental health, disability, sexuality and human rights. She lives with schizophrenia without medication and provides the early voice and leadership for persons living with mental illness to speak and advocate for their own rights. PE: As a mental health activist, what are the gender based differences you have seen in terms of access to diagnosis and treatment? As a woman, it is so…
Harmala Gupta traversed the journey from being a cancer survivor to founding CanSupport, a home based Palliative Care service in Delhi and NCR. CanSupport also runs out-patient clinics. Harmala Gupta shares her views with PatientsEngage on Palliative Care. PE: According to the ACHEON study ("The non-interventional, anonymous, non-biased ACHEON survey was the first and largest cross sectional evaluation of physicians’ and patients’ perspectives on cancer and non-cancer pain management…
An effervescent 18-year-old, Preethi Srinivasan, a super achiever in every field. The world was at her feet and the stars in her eyes when overnight she turned into a quadriplegic. Preethi, today, is still reaching out to the world from her wheelchair and her organisation Soulfree is out to create great opportunities for those confined to the wheelchair. A freewheeling talk with the bright, young lady who, incidentally, talks into a speech activated software,…
"Women are referred to a gynaecologist at a higher facility; this is a major reason for loss to follow-up". Dr. Suneeta Krishnan shares with PatientsEngage her findings and recommendations of the implementation science research project to promote the adoption and effective scale-up of cervical cancer prevention in India. 1. According to you, which screening method is the most cost-effective? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), screening for cervical cancer through…
An awareness film made by Indian Association of Palliative Care based on excerpts from over 200 interviews conducted with working and retired nurses across India
To address misconceptions and concerns about employment for people with mental health issues, we speak with Dr Mangala, a consultant psychiatrist with SCARF (Schizophrenia Research Foundation). Could you please explain what in medical parlance is known as ‘Mentally ill or Mentally Disabled’? Are these labels useful/helpful? A disturbance in one’s ability to think, behave or express feelings is termed as mental illness. When someone lacks the ability to: meet or fulfill basic…
One of India’s first assisted living centres for adults with autism, Arunima, located on the foothills of Himalayas in Dehradun, was started by Aparna Das. In the following interview she stresses the need to be more conscious about differently abled people. Could you tell us a little about Arunima? “Arunima” is an organization set up to meet the needs of persons with Autism who have outgrown the “school system” and now have the rest of their lives to look forward to - a life…
