Chandigarh: The Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh had provided 10 months training in care-giving called “Certificate Course in Cargiving” to twenty-two candidates who are resident of Chandigarh as per “Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY)”under the “Skill Training for Employment Promotion Amongst Urban Poor (STEP-UP)”of Municipal Corporation , Chandigarh. Students were between 18-35 years of age and comprised of housewives and graduates and others.There was a felt need to have trained people who can look after those with illness in general and those with mental illness in particular . It is worth mentioning here that in the last year there were about 8500 people with some kind of disability and about 10% of these people have severe disability. Many of these disabled people had mental illness, autism , multiple disabilities etc. These people require constant care and often this become challenging on the part of the family members. Added to this is the grim scenario that there is a lack of trained care-giver for these people with disability. Keeping this in mind, the Department of Psychiatry decided to run the “Certificate Course in Care-giving”. No fee was charged from the trainees.Probably this is one of its kind course in India.
The valedictory function of the first batch was held today (25.03.15) in the Regional Institute for Mentally Handicapped and Honourable Mayor of Chandigarh, Mrs Poonam Sharma attended as the Chief Guest.
It was mostly a practical oriented training which comprised of the following four modules which were as per Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) syllabus :
- Basic Compulsory Module covering area such as Anatomy & Physiology, Health, Nutrition, general caregiving, concession and benefits for the persons with disability under various Govt. schemes.
- Autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities.
- Mental illness, dementia and other disabling conditions.
- Loco-motor impairment due to conditions including trauma, spinal cord injury, head injury, stroke, muscular dystrophy, arthritis, leprosy cured, old age etc.
As a part of their practical training the students were posted in various department of Government Medical like the department of Psychiatry, Orthopaedics, Anatomy etc and also in the Regional Institute for Mentally Handicapped (RIMH) so that they get first-hand knowledge and experience in caring for those with mental illness as well as those with other disability. As a part of their posting they also had to visit the families having people with disability and work with them.
In the function Prof BS Chavan, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Govt Medical College & Hospital welcomed the august gathering and stressed the need of trained care-givers in Chandigarh. Then Dr Subhash Das spoke briefly about the course.
After this Mr Vivek Trivedi, Social Development Officer, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh addressed the audience and mentioned that this was one of the lengthiest training program carried out under SJSRY scheme and appreciated the efforts of all the people who had carried out this training.
Hon’ble Mayor of Chandigarh, Mrs Poonam Sharma too addressed the audience and congratulated the successful candidates. She urged the students to help the needy with their skills that they acquired during the training. She also mentioned that she is keen to extend her support in this kind of activity in the future too.
In the function that followed the successful students received a “Certificate of Competency” and also a stipend of rupees two thousand.
The function concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Manoj Kumar Bajaj.