A battle for Raju

"This house feels good."

Raju

Our Sneha-Manoyatri Rehabilitation Center finds and works with homeless psychiatric patients.

We bring the people we find living on the streets to our center where we provide them proper psychiatric treatment with the aim of reintegrating them back into their own families. Unfortunately, it is not always that straightforward

We were happy when we found Raju’s family, but they were not able to provide the much-needed support he needed to keep him safely in their home and he also refused to return. They complained about him and his mental illness, saying that he deliberately hurt and disrespected them in front of other people. Their relatives and acquaintances also pointed out his weird behavior which was creating additional problems for them.

He had run away from his house many times before and the frustrated family had developed a negative view of Raju and were not ready to take his problems on again. Convincing them to change their minds was extremely difficult and when we tried to take him to his family Raju became sick with diarrhea and vomiting.

Seeing that the reunion was not to be, our team brought Raju back to Ahmednagar where he was admitted to our District Government Hospital for consultation and investigations. Raju became anxious and started pointing at the sky, repeatedly saying, "I have to go, let me go. Do not give me any medicine." This is an expected outcome with patients who have lost their hopes of survival, especially after rejection by their families.

Realising he had lost hope, we decided to take Raju under our permanent care and reassure him that he had a new Snehalaya family that he could count on. Sometimes simple acts of kindness and the restoration hope can turn a situation around and Raju’s condition gradually stablised and he is very happily living here.