1. BALM Organised the 3rd BALM & UCL Course on ‘Recent Advances in Cultural Psychiatry for South Asia,’ from November 9 –11, 09 at IFMR, Chennai

Topics centred on:

1) Recent advances in Medical Anthropology as applied to South Asian Psychiatry, 2) Impact of cultural identity, migration and ‘notions of home’ on mental health 3) Update on a) ‘Culture Bound Syndromes’, b) Culture & Pharmacology c) ‘Creative therapies’ in South Asia, 4) Clinical skills in application of Social Science theory to the practice of Psychiatry in South Asia.

Faculty comprised from UCL, BALM and The Banyan.

A total of 35 participants comprising psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychiatric social workers and clinical practitioners in mental health from NGO and public health sector from across the world including Germany, Canada, Sweden, UAE, USA, UK and Australia participated and enlivened the discussions with their rich and varied knowledge, experience and expertise.

It was an engaging experience with fresh learnings, valuable insights which emerged from the teaching, break away sessions and also from the lively interactions and discussions that followed each session.

2. BALM-UCL Research Unit: The last day (before team UCL left) was spent discussing future research projects and course curriculum on mental health as part of the BALM & UCL research Unit.

BALM –UCL Research Unit is nested within BALM office at Chennai and jointly directed by Dr Sushrut Jadhav (Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, UCL) & Madhu Sharan (Director, BALM). The research faculty include a multi-disciplinary team of medical anthropologists, clinical academic mental health professionals, and social scientists; from BALM & UCL.

Outcome: The Unit aims at submitting a minimum of 2 joint research grant applications and 2 publications by the end of the proposed period. It is intended that the subsequent life of the research unit will be supported through external funding for research. Findings generated from such research will also feed into future UCL-BALM teaching course content. This is in keeping with the overall objective of generating locally valid mental health theory for the marginalised population.

Lalit Narayan, a participant of the last two courses, who is a medical doctor, will be hired for 6 months to carry out the research on the 3 Pilot projects, namely.

1. Narratives of Recovery and Return of the Homeless Mentally Ill Women

2. Stigmatisation of Severe Mental Illness amongst rural and urban population of Tamil Nadu

3. Impact Assessment of the UCL – BALM Collaboration 2008-2009

3. BALM organised a SEMINAR on ‘Role of Faith Healing in Mental Health Care’, on November 12, 09.

Topics covered were:

• Mental health in India – Cultural and historical perspectives
• Faith healing as a form of psychiatric treatment
• Case studies of people who have only accessed faith healing practices.
• Case studies of people who have accessed faith healing practices, as well as allopathic psychiatric treatment.

Speakers comprised of: Dr. Anup Dhar, Psychiatrist, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society; Dr. O M. Somasundaram, Former Medical Superintendent, IMH; Dr. K. S Jacob, Professor of Psychiatry, CMC, Vellore; Milesh Hamlai, Director, The Altruist, Gujarat, Dr. Brigitte Sebastia, French Institute of Pondicherry; Dr. Harish Naraindas, Prof of Sociology, JNU, N Delhi; Prof Roland Littlewood, UCL; Dr Sushrut Yadav, UCL; Mr. Allahudin, Healer, Kovalam; P.L Porkodi, Project Director, The Banyan.

Apart from these, there were clients of The Banyan who access faith healing at Kovalam Durgah and Hanumanthapuram temple, Tamil Nadu

Participants comprised all those who were present at the BALM & UCL course and several clients, care givers and members of the 'Adaikalam,' and CMHP project of The Banyan. The seminar was a huge success in terms of valuable learnings, sound perspectives and very participative discussions.

4. ‘Rally for Recovery’: To increase awareness on mental illness, BALM & The Banyan, in cooperation with Asha International, organized the ‘Rally for Recovery’, on November 20, 09. The venue was Asha Nivas, Rutland Gate, Nungambakkam, and Chennai.

5. Research at BALM is currently ongoing in 4 study projects:

a) The impact of the Disability Allowance of The Banyan on ‘re-integrated clients’ and their families in and around Chennai.

b) Interlinkages between mental health and employment: A case study of socio-economically disadvantaged outpatient clients of The Banyan.

c) ‘Self-help groups as alternative Models of Rehabilitation of Persons with Mental Health Issues – a case study of SHGs formed by the Banyan.’

d) Continued work has been done on the ‘Study of rehabilitated ex-residents of The Banyan in South India’.

6. Replication of The Banyan or Alternate Model of Mental Health Services in Chhattisgarh: The Banyan was approached by The Dept of Women and Child, Govt of Chhattisgarh to enable them to expand their outreach in providing mental health services in Chhattisgarh.

This was followed by a visit of a team comprising Mr Sunil Sharma and Ms. Christina, Assistant Joint Director (s), Dept of WCD from Chhattisgarh to The Banyan, Chennai, on November 22 and 23rd. The team visited all projects of The Banyan and held discussions with the senior team of The Banyan.

i) Two joint discussions were held with the senior management team on the model of mental health services to be implemented in Chhattisgarh and the roll-out strategy.

ii) As a step forward, it was agreed that The Banyan would submit a proposal highlighting the overview of the collaboration and the possible types of services that could be provided by the Govt of Chhattisgarh.

iii) This would be followed by a visit of a senior team from The Banyan to Raipur to understand the existing nature and types of mental health services available at Chhattisgarh and interact and discuss with Govt officials on fine-tuning /expanding provision of mental health services in the State.

The proposal was submitted on November 25, 09 and a team comprising Ms Vandana Gopikumar, Founder and Managing Trustee of The Banyan, Ms Madhu Sharan, and Director of The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) and Ms P. L. Porkodi, Director of Community Mental Health Project of The Banyan would be visiting Chhattisgarh to take forward the discussions.

7.BALM & IFMR Partnership: The third session with the 1st year MBA students at Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR) was held on November 14, 09.

Madhu Sharan, Director of BALM addressed the students on the topic of ‘State and Social Change in India.’ The talk focussed on the philosophy and salient features of The Indian Constitution and how the Constitution itself is an agent of Social Change; Concept of a Welfare State; Role of State in Social Change including the role of legislation, planning; Socio-economic gaps in development and way forward.

8. Session on ‘Working with distressed children and Adolescents,’ by Dr. David Goldberg (MRCP, MRC Psych, MSc, SocAnthrop), on November 14, 2009. This was organised for the Banyan staff at The Banyan Centre Office, Spurtank Road for experiential learning, discussions and application of knowledge.

9. Volunteers at The Banyan & BALM in November 2009 were:

Liz and Laurence from the UK have continued their work at Adaikalam in improving quality of care and training of health care workers respectively. Their fresh inputs and ideas have been very valuable for the team at Adaikalam.

Catherine from Australia finished her time as a volunteer in November. She has been very helpful in the OP clinics in Loyola as well as in the Day Care Centre. Her inputs as a psychiatric social worker have been very valuable.

Aditi continues her work at the CMHP and has started workshops with women in Kovalam to work with their life stories as narratives.

Lucy, a final year medical student from the UK, is assisting the team in Kovalam at the OP clinics as well as assisting Aditi in the narratives workshops.

A special mention should be made of Anna, who has been with The Banyan since February and has been an immense help with various kinds of work. The new website is now live thanks to her hard work. She has also helped out the team immensely in writing proposals, letters, applications for awards and grants and documenting seminars. In the last few months, she has also been very involved in the work of the Day Care Centre, where she helped establish the vegetable garden and other activities.

Now that Anna has to return to the UK, The Banyan and BALM would like to thank Anna for all the work she has done. We will greatly miss her cheerful presence and positivity around the organisation!

BALM is thankful to the volunteers for their time and expertise to The Banyan and BALM.