Psychosocial Support Camp of “Bringing Back To Regular Life” project is the program to provide special support & treatment to the mental clients of our working VDCs-Karthali, Petku & Marming by a psychosocial support team that comprises of Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Counselor, Nurse, Health Worker and Social Mobilizer along with local authority. This program is conducted twice a month generally by a group of specialist in the accessible place of community. It is conducted in a systematic rotation fashion turn by turn in these 3VDCs.
The main objective to conduct psychosocial support camp twice a month is to screen out mental clients in post disaster phase and to provide respective psychosocial services- psychiatric consultation, psychological intervention, counseling and referral for further treatment in critical cases. The regular conduction of such camp will also raise public awareness regarding mental health and help to remove misconception and stigma because of dealing by experts.
The clients for psychosocial support camp service are selected on the basis of previous information collected and recommended by counselor. The clients get progressive psychiatric consultation, psychological intervention, counseling and social support by psychosocial support team. Time and again conduction of such program with regular monitoring by this team help to know the client progress. It’s a complete psychosocial service for community clients.
7th psychosocial support camp was conducted successfully recently at Karthali despite of risky journey. Landslides and road destruction due to heavy rainfall has hindered the smooth functioning of camp. But still as the possibility is noticed; we are trying our best to conduct the psychosocial support camp to give regularity and provide services to our clients so as to help them to come out of their psychosocial problems.
Now as in each VDC; the camp is being repeated; our main intention is to follow up our previous clients for their successfully recovery. In this recent 7th camp held at Karthali; Out of 11 follow up cases; 9 of them came for psychological intervention where 5 cases were found to have improvements. The cases in brief are as follows:
1. Nirmaya Tamang (name changed): A girl of 12 years from Dhurumthali (Karthali-1) was diagnosed to have dissociative disorder by Psychiatrist and prescribed- Tafel 0.25mg & Triplin 10 mg tab. She also had psychological intervention (Talk therapy) on her 1st visit. In her 2nd visit at this camp she was found to be very refreshing & sharing. She shared that she has not fainted anymore and problem that she complained previously have lessen drastically. She has started going to her school and continue her normal activities. She is told to continue Triplin 25 mg tab and come for regular follow up in our camp.
2. Nabin Tamang (name changed): A little boy of 4 years of age from Maajhakharka (Karthali-1) was brought to our psychosocial support camp by his parents on 11th June for the 1st time where he was diagnosed by our Psychiatrist to have seizure disorder. He was given psychotropic medicine by doctor and had consultation with Psychologist for further exploration on the issue on the same day. On 2nd visit at this camp; his parents told that after taking medicines from our camp, a boy who had 5-7 times seizure in a week had no seizure but as medicine was over it started again. They assured that till medicine was taken the problem was controlled and case had improvements. He was given Pheno 60mg tab and was told to continue and have follow up in camp by Psychiatrist.
3. Pemba Dolma Sherpa(name changed): This case is of dissociative disorder as diagnosed by psychiatrist in the camp when came for the 1st time. She is a girl from Dhurumthali(Karthali-1) who is of 11 years. On her 2nd visit to the camp as follow up case, her case was also found to have improved as told by her parents. But they too said that medicine had slight sight effect. She was given Triplin10 mg by Psychiatrist this time. She spoke very frankly and was found to be cheerful telling that she has no such symptoms these days to Psychologist.
4. Devaki Bhandari(name changed): In her 2nd visit to the camp at Karthali, she admitted that her problem is minimized. She is a lady from Karthali-6 who is left by her husband who lives with her mother. She was diagnosed to have personality disorder by Psychiatrist on her first consultation to our camp on 11th June at Karthali. She said that medicine prescribed and given at camp on her 1st visit caused nausea and headache. She shared that she had impulsive behavior which is controlled to greater extent these days. A talk therapy was used by Psychologist where she was observed to have calm behavior and insight regarding her problem. It was noticed that her case had improved than before after psychological intervention. She was asked to come to next camp again for follow up.
5. Sanumaya B.K(name changed): A lady admitted that her problem was minimized and case was improving at her 2nd visit to our camp. She is from Karthali-6, 24years of age diagnosed with dissociative disorder by Psychiatrist on her 1st visit to camp. She was prescribed cizodol 0.25mg on her 1st visit but with case improvement and further details now she is given klozep 0.25mg. A talk therapy was used on both visit by Psychologist. Both medication and therapy was found to be effective for her case as she shared her idea on therapy session on this camp.
These improved cases have verified that many such other psychosocial cases can have gradual recovery with psychosocial support camp if conducted systematically with such expert team on regular basis for reasonable period of time. The first thing is that people at community level had no such services before and moreover the perception towards such issues were negative but with regular psychosocial awareness and intervention program; people are being more open and have started developing positive attitude towards mental problems. It is therefore necessary to continue such psychosocial camp for sustainable service and outstanding recovery from such problems so as to have good health because no health without mental health. And then wealth can be regenerated with sound mental health so that people can return back to their regular life with hope and resilience.