An Evaluation of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Facilities for Homeless Mentally Ill in India

Abstract

Homelessness due to chronic mental illness has become amajor burden for most of the resource poor countries. TheKerala State in India has witnessed the efforts from thefaith based organizations and religiously oriented familiesin the care and rehabilitation of the homeless mentally ill.This paper explores the processes used by these facilitiesfor the care and rehabilitation of homeless mentally ill.Data were collected from the chief functionary ofrehabilitation facilities, persons with mental illnessresiding in the rehabilitation centers, and volunteer careproviders using interview schedules for the study ofrehabilitation processes and profile of chief functionaryand care providers. Otehre tools were, WHO QoL tomeasure the quality of life and level of functioning scaleand Global Assessment of Functioning Scale formeasuring the functioning. The care providers’orientation to mental illness was assessed usingOrientation to Mental Illness Scale (Prabhu, 1983). 65% ofthe centers displayed above average patient care serviceswhereas 25% had poor overall quality of patient careservices. The residents showed moderate level of qualityof life in the area of physical health, psychological health,social relationships and high level of quality of life in the domain of environment. The research has also identifiedseveral gaps in functioning of the facilities.