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Observational visit by banyan trust

The Banyan is a non-governmental organization based in Chennai, India was founded in 1993 by Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar to cater to the mentally ill and homeless women in the city. Over the past two decades, has expanded to offer a range of comprehensive mental health solutions for men and women who are either homeless, or living in a state of abject poverty.

This includes emergency care and critical time interventions offered across 2 hospital based settings, and one shelter for homeless persons with psychosocial disabilities, operated in collaboration with the Corporation of Chennai under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), reaching out to 162 individuals in distress at any given point of time. Over 3400 individuals have accessed these services since 1993..

The Banyan’s Kerala Chapter is led by Mr. Salih PM, a social worker and social entrepreneur..
Kerala, The Banyan is also working in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, The Hans Foundation and The Government of Kerala on reorienting the social architecture of institutional mental health care. The project, known as “Snehakoodu”aims to identify long-stay patients in the government mental health centres in Trissur, Trivandrum and Calicut and facilitate their return to their homes or into inclusive living long-term care options, such as the Home Again program…

founder trustee mrs vandana gopikumar , mr.salih & team visited rajah rehabilitation center & santhi bhavan.a formal meeting was arranged with manager pradeepkumar ,hospital administrator sinoj ,asst mngr sunil,clinical psychologist,social workers& paravocational instructors..the team discussed about collaboration with RRC team for initiating a new project..by BANYAN–TATA trust ..which is known as
ECRC & HSBS rehabilitation program for people with mental health issues..a multidisciplinary team offers clinical, psychological & social care at these centres with focus on personal recovery & social inclusion.

ECRC Manuals were provided .the team banyan was impressed by rehabilitation programme offered by Thanal & Santhibhavan.

There will be a consensus meeting after discussion with our founder trustee Abdul Salam sir.