The Maharashtra health department is planning to change the name of ‘Thane Mental hospital’ to avoid the stigma carried by the words ‘mental illness’.
The state health department is planning to change the name of ‘Thane Mental hospital’ to avoid the stigma carried by the words ‘mental illness’.
The department is seriously thinking of removing the word ‘mental’ from its name and replacing it with a word that is more clinical.
The Thane hospital is one of the largest mental health hospitals in the state. It is spread over 72 acres and has a capacity of 1,856.
Around 150 patients use its outdoor patient department (OPD) daily. At any time, around 1,400 patients are being admitted to the hospital.
According to Dr Sanjay Kumavat, superintendent of the hospital, the facility needs a name change. Set up at a time when knowledge about mental illnesses was poor, the hospital treats not only severe mental illnesses, but also cases of depression.
There are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about mental illnesses. The hospital hopes to change some of that perception by changing the name.
“Even people with depression visit the hospital for treatment. But coming to this facility carries the stigma of being labelled as mad. We want to change this image. After talking to experts in this field, we will remove the word mental from the name of the hospital,” said Suresh Shetty, state health minister.
The department seems to be very serious with the name change because they are planning to send a team to Bangalore to study the functioning and patients care at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS).
One of the most unique aspects of NIMHANS is its staff and the way it handles patients. In order to take a review of all four mental hospitals in the state — Thane, Pune Ratnagiri and Nagpur, the department appointed an 11-member committee a year ago. The committee has already submitted a report to the department.
Dr Shubhangi Parkar, head of psychiatry department, said, “In our culture, people take a different view of the word ‘mental’. To avoid the stigma, we are planning to remove the word ‘mental’ from the name of hospital. For instance, they can call it the Thane Institute of Behavioural Science or Thane Institute of Psychiatry.”
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