Chandigarh Administration to convert Cheshire Home into home for mentally challenged

Dushyant Singh Pundir
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 23

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Finally, the UT Administration has decided to convert Cheshire Home in Sector 21 into a group home for mentally challenged.

At present, Cheshire Home, which belongs to the Administration, has been encroached upon by 17 persons, mostly handicapped, who were earlier working in the Traffic Police pre-paid booths, which are now lying shut.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida, along with Yashpal Garg, Secretary, Social Welfare, Navjot Kaur, Director, Social Welfare, Chief Engineer Mukesh Anand, and Rajiv Tewari, Director, Public Relations, inspected Cheshire Home.

Parida said it was decided to accommodate a group home for mentally challenged in the building and also to set up a half-way home in DART Building in Sector 32, Chandigarh.

Efforts would be made to engage some dedicated NGO under the supervision of the Social Welfare Department to run these Homes, he said, and added that further action on the issue would be taken in consultation with all departments.

Parida also directed the officials to find out alternate jobs for the handicapped persons so that they could be gainfully employed and arrange their own accommodation independently.

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, mandates the state governments and union territories across the country to set up group home or half-way home for people suffering from mental illnesses.

According to a survey conducted in the city, nearly 400 persons with mental illness need the facilities of Group Home which is an assisted-living facility for the mentally ill, much like an old-age home, but with a psycho-social worker, a clinical psychologist and counsellors or therapists.

Patients with chronic mental illness can stay for a long period in a group home, whereas half-way homes are meant for people who need to stay in a “transient” place between a home and a hospital for a few months.