Organzing a fest

The work on saMMsCRIthi '14 started already.

The website is here: saMMsCRIthi.in
The facebook page: fb.com/saMMsCRIthi
The twitter profile: twitter.com/saMMsCRIthi

Sponsorship committees are starting their work. We, Malayalis are going to all the hotels and restaurants. It was a good start today.

One Day Discussion on Developing Curriculum for Masters in Human Rights in Mental Health

Introduction
Dr Narendra about
Dr Vijayaraghavan about child psychiatry
Dr Krishnaprasad talked about his interest in providing affordable child mental health.
Dr Muralikrishna about his interest in old age mental health.
Dr Sumanth about Diabetes, Hypertension, Chronic Diseases.
Dr Manjunath about education in general, and medical education in particular.
Prof Niranjan, from University of Mysore, HoD Dept of Communication and Journalism
Dr Anilkumar about psychopharmacology, sexual medicine and spiritual psychiatry.
Dr Rajgopal about self-harm.
Dr Sushama about bipolar disorder, coercion.
Eunice Severity of cognitive impairment in age over 60.
Dr ... Old age, Alzheimer's etc.
Dr Kishore about undergraduate medical teaching.
Dr Tony Ryan? Community health services
Dr Catherine about self harm, suicide, coercion.
Dr Rob Poole social psychiatrist - substance abuse, alcohol deaths, suicide, self harm.
Dr Raveesh - legal psychiatry, ethics and human rights, including policy making.

Aims for the Day

• Share information about collaboration
• Hear about people's views and experiences relevant to research
• Peer review ideas

Mysore - Bangor Collaboration

Experience and Concerns
Professional help is not received, non-professional is; and we are okay with that.
Husband is tied up by wife. Neighbours do nothing. Finally,, the paramedical staff had to find it out.
In Dargas, everyone is tied up.
Older people who are stressed out, can't openly come out because of the cultural restrictions.
Awareness, Accessibility, Affordability, Acceptability.

Sometimes children/adults do not know they are being taken to a psychiatrist, but just a family friend or someone.

What if we are barging on the caretaker's human right by not allowing him to coerce a patient into treatment citing his human right.

Coercion needs to be defined to allow for positive coercion.

Tea

Boundaries of spiritual practice in professional care.
We were asked to give a 10-word description of several clinical vignettes. Then there'd be a discussion about how we should respond to those situations.

Lunch

After lunch we're supposed to create clinical vignettes of our own. Battery running out.

Looking Back

Today I went through some of the first posts in this blog. I do not think I have changed a lot. But a lot of things have changed. Curiosity has given way to boredom. Anxieties have dissolved into indifference. And the way I look at people has become more sceptical than the optimistic it was.

Maybe it is natural to feel this, but I am feeling "toska" (as Sneha would describe it). I have discovered the meaninglessness of life. And I am still living it. I have no idea what I am living for, and I do not know whether I am happy or sad. I am sad that I am not sad. I am living mechanically.

From today, I will try to start afresh.
And I will try to keep starting afresh in the coming days. After all, that is one good thing about starting afresh, you can do it again and again.