Day 4 -- a symposium on Mental Health and Gender Violence

In partnership with the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF - www.scarfindia.org), a symposium was held on Mental Health and Gender Violence. About 150 students and professionals from the fields of psychology, social work and counseling attended the seminar. The chairperson for the seminar was Dr. Sheela Julius, Head of the Department of Counseling Psychology from the Madras School of Social Work.

Participants were given a warm welcome from Dr. R. Thara, director of SCARF and Dr. Swarna from Prajnya.

The programme kicked off with Gender Violence – getting the basics right, a session by Anupama from Prajnya. She noted that violence is like the elephant in the room that everyone is trying to ignore and talked about the stigma and the challenges in addressing gender violence. She encouraged the young students to separate their professional assessment from their personal feelings. “We must go so far but if for whatever reason they refuse our help, we must not sit in judgement.”

The next session, “Violence at Home – Detection and Management”, was conducted by Dr. Shuba Kumar. She is a social scientist and co-founder of Samarth, a NGO that focuses on health research and training. In the seminar, she talked about the findings of her research study, Domestic violence and its mental health correlates in Indian women. The findings were published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/187/1/62.short The study sample included about 10,000 women across various strata in seven different centres across India and the findings on the correlation between domestic violence and poor mental health was reviewed for the Domestic Violence Act (2005). The study provided substantive evidence of the need to classify domestic violence as a major health problem.

The third session, Mental Health correlates of violence, was conducted by Dr. Hema Tharoor, a psychiatrist at SCARF. She is a recipient of the Dr. TMA Pai Gold medal for Excellence in Medical Research and has extensive investigative experience in clinical drug trials. Dr. Hema talked about health and mental disorders arising from witnessing domestic violence. She gave an example of a student refusing to attend school because the child was a witness to bullying. Witnessing violence as a child can lead to trust issues and impair romantic relationship and emotional attachments. She said “violence was impossible to predict but risk can be assessed” and discussed vulnerabilities that might pre-dispose individuals to violence.

The final session, Counseling victims of violence, was conducted by psychotherapist Ravi Samuel, who has over 19 years of clinical experience. Mr Samuel is an external faculty member at the Institute for Psychotherapy & Management Sciences, Chennai and is an associate member of the Indian Psychiatric Society. He started the session by narrating two cases and asked the audience for their observations and impressions. He advised that counselors should not make assumptions without finding the complete history and to get an informed view. He said, “Violence is only one part of the relationship.... We need to know the relationship dynamics to aid the counseling process.” Counselors' own ideologies about violence will shape and impact the treatment paths, he noted and advised to not give common sense advice to patients. “Go beyond the violence to bring permanent solutions.”

2009 Campaign PR (4/12):Mental Health & Gender Violence: A symposium

Chennai: “Violence against Women has profound implications on mental health which are often ignored, it is a pervasive social malady with severe public health implications,” said Dr.Shantha Kamath, a psychiatrist at a Symposium on Mental Health and Gender Violence held at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), here on Friday.

Organised jointly by SCARF and Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for research and networking and public education, the symposium reinforced the correlation between gender violence and mental illness through multiple presentations by psychiatrists, researchers and other experts in mental health care and rehabilitation.

In a study conducted, 64% of mentally ill women were found to have been victims of domestic violence at some point in their lives. “Prolonged exposure to violence of any sort causes physiological damage to the brain, resulting in physical, emotional, psychological and behavioural problems in children” said Dr. V. Jayanthini.

There was also a strong linkage found between alcohol and other forms of substance abuse and violence against women. “Under the influence of alcohol, the actions of a husband are often excused by his wife. In fact, domestic violence in many parts of the country is not considered a crime but a part and parcel of marital life,” said Dr. Anita Rao, Director of Medical Services, TTK Hospital, who spoke on gender violence and substance abuse.

Dr. Shuba Kumar, Founder of SAMARTH, and a Social Science researcher, highlighted distinct patterns in domestic violence, from a study conducted across the length and breadth of the country. “The prevalence of mental abuse due to domestic violence is found more in cases when a woman’s job and income is higher than those of her husband’s,” she pointed out.

Chaitali Shetty of the Banyan also spoke of the distinctive rehabilitation patterns among rural and urban women, and expressed that rural women found more acceptance in their households after recovering from their illnesses. “The most common mental illnesses among victims of domestic violence are depression and suicidal tendencies,” she observed.

The symposium was chaired by Dr. Nalini Rao from the Madras School of Social Work, and was organised as part of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

In the news: Guidelines to tackle violence against mentally-ill persons

We know that the experience of violence has a tremendous, long-term impact on the mental health of an individual. We also know that the mentally ill are particularly vulnerable to violence. On 4 December, as part of the campaign, Prajnya is organising a symposium on Mental Health and Gender Violence, to discuss this causal relationship.

The guidelines issued by the state Social Welfare Department (see below), in the aftermath of a mass whipping of "possessed women" in Tiruchi district are therefore particularly relevant.

The original news story on the mass whipping in Tiruchi, published in Frontline magazine
(6 November 2009)

Guidelines to tackle violence against mentally-ill persons
Special Correspondent

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“Health check-up should be arranged periodically”

“Possibility of starting counselling centres should be explored”

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CHENNAI: The State Social Welfare Department has framed a set of guidelines to tackle the problem of violence against persons with psychiatric illness and District Collectors have been advised to organise awareness programmes for preventing atrocities on women patients.

Non-governmental organisations should be encouraged to establish homes for mentally-ill persons with vocational training programmes for their rehabilitation. The possibility of starting counselling centres should also be explored. Health check-up should be arranged periodically.

The guidelines have been issued following the publication of an article in the Frontline magazine of November 6, 2009, on the incident of mass whipping of women, who were believed to be possessed, in Vellalapatti village in Tiruchi district. The Principal Secretary of the department addressed a letter last week to the Tiruchi Collector. Letters on similar lines have also been sent to other Collectors, according to a senior official.

Fiat to Collectors

The Collectors should organise meetings at regular intervals with officials of Health, Social Welfare and Rural Development departments and mobilise specialists in psychiatry/psychology. They should facilitate provision of assistance to mentally-ill persons through social security schemes of the government. They should ensure that those mentally ill persons who are orphans should be admitted to rehabilitation centres on a priority basis.

The Collectors have been advised to take the support of NGOs, which have a commendable track record, and women’s self-help groups. They could take legal action against those who practised or perpetuated such inhuman practices against women.