Inside a big hall at the Government Psychiatry hospital in Srinagar, a group of mentally challenged people try their hands on a drawing sheet.
SRINAGAR: Inside a big hall at the Government Psychiatry hospital in Srinagar, a group of mentally challenged people try their hands on a drawing sheet. Some draw a house; some write a letter while some others sketch a brick structure. From a distance, a curious onlooker watches carefully without disturbing the men at work.
This is not a drawing competition but a part of art therapy to treat the mentally challenged patients here. It is for the first time that the therapy is being used to gauge the mood of the patients to help in their treatment.
“The patients are asked to paint or draw whatever they like. We then analyse their work to get some insight into the patients’ brains. This helps us in treating the patients in a better way,” says Arshad Hussain, art therapist who is a course conductor.
Thanks to this therapy, the 30 year old mentally challenged Fayaz Ahmad Wani is on the road for a fast-track recovery. Wani is a science graduate who has been undergoing treatment for the last four years. He attempted suicide twice but was saved. “I was fed up with my life and that is why I tried to hang myself. But now I want to go home,” says Wani.
Organisers are now contemplating to transform Wani’s ideas on a canvas and display it in exhibitions. “He is good at art. His drawings and paintings are very rich in content. So we have decided to display his paintings in art exhibitions,” says Hussain.
Last year, a painting by a female inmate depicting a blood-red hand was a pick of the exhibition. “When we communicated with her later, it was established that her brother was shot dead before her eyes,” adds Hussain.
Psychiatrists say the art therapy helps them in treating patients who are unable to express their feelings. “It is a means of non-verbal expression. Particularly schizophrenic patients are unable to express what is going on in their minds.
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