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  • Mentoring and Empowering Young Adults with Autism
    International Autism Awareness Day 2016 #autismawareness  The Amaze Charitable Trust, born from challenges of raising a child with autism, helps families navigate the autism maze through innovative programmes, social skills, adventure camps and employment opportunities, says its director Akila Vaidyanathan. Could you give us a little background on Amaze Charitable Trust? What was the vision behind Amaze? Autism is a complex disorder; it affects the core areas of communication and social…
  • People with Autism can be employed in mainstream technology roles
    International Autism Awareness Day 2016 #autismawareness Kavita Sharma talks about Prayas, a unit or a project of Autism Society of India that focuses on iPad, computer and technology-based training for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Could you give us a little background on Project Prayas and its goals and objectives? Project Prayas embraces a mission that unfolds and reinforces the potentials of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder towards quality education and independent…
  • Changing the Emotional Response Towards the Woman with Mental Illness
    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…
  • Women’s movements should take into account the concerns and issues of women with disabilities
    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.…
  • Irrespective of mental health issues, family and friends must respect a woman
    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…
  • A wish for no one to endure unnecessary pain
    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…
  • Complete helplessness and dependence has taught me to be more empathetic to others
    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,…
  • Cervical Cancer Screening and diagnosis do not occur in the same facility
    "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…
  • The case for Palliative Care
    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