21.1.2024. 7 pm IST
Orphaned at young age, homeless, roaming on trains across India for long time mentally unsound today set free from her misery.
♡♡♡ Thanks to Sr Bernadette ( Hand Maids of Christ) & Shiv Premi , Suddesh Mayenker , both from Calangute , this cycle has been broken and healing is on the way to this young middle aged girl PRETTY ( that's what we shall call her )
Exactly 1 month today, 19.1.23, @ 8.07 pm , Friday , Sr Bernadette called from St Anthony Chapel, Calangute saying ” one lady in sad state, hungry, unclean and unsound mind.
I called Mr Suddesh who reached within 10 min and got the Calangute police involved.
Calangute police picked her up & took her to the Candolim health centre for a check up at
10.30 pm , where the Doctor on duty declared “fit to admit in a shelter home “.
Which was wrong.
Why wrong ?
No sound person will be living in dirt and in the darkness on the streets .
By declaring ” fit to admitt in a shelter home” both the Doctor & the police made their work easy by choosing this short cut method, but made our life that night a mess as whole night after admitting PRETTY into our home she turned the home upside down.
Attached an letter from ” The Goa State Mental Health Review Board ” which clearly says ” police personal in both districts need to do proper mental evaluation of such homeless before admission” but it's not working as we expect .
Any way next day PRETTY was taken to IPHB which was a Sat and we begged with the CONSULTANT on Sat duty to admit , but that too fell on deaf years, given medicine and sent back.
Next day Sunday and next day Monday which was again a public holiday.
That's why she had to be admitted on either Friday night by the police directly or on Sat when we took her.
Monday 22nd evening, she was totally out of control & since it was a public holiday I had to take her myself and that's where I lost my cool.
The junior Doctors took 3 full hours just asking question after question which is only A HUGE WASTE OF TIME and that's what my disagreement is at The IPHB.
Any way today after close to a month this young girl has been discharged and taken to our Home.
See how our system fails such poor innocent young girls & ladies.
If on 19.1.24 , this same girl was declared fit to be admitted into our home directly then how was she admitted for close to a month till 21.2.24 in IPHB ?
Minus Street Providence PSYCHIATRIC homes and you will have chaos on the streets.
Most of the times such innocent ladies on the streets of Goa with chronic mental disabilities don't get any support from the law as the paperwork required to be done by The police involves :
☆ 1.Getting an assessment done at the local health centre who has to give in writing that patient needs admission at IPHB,
☆ 2. then approach the district Magistrate to get a Magistrate Order,
☆ 3. Then go to IPHB , they do some check up and recommend to GMC for scan etc.
☆ 4. Then come back from GMC and admit into IPHB.
All this takes minimum 8 to 10 hours.
And 4 Police personal and 1 police car is required
Which Police Inspector is going to do this ?Especially at night.
That's what again I am in a dispute with IPHB ,
” allow us to admit such pathetic genuine homeless ladies directly into IPHB as The Law is not doing their part due to genuine reasons “.
And the genuine reason is ” even if The Law admits into IPHB with the Magistrate Order, once discharged then where to put them or at times IPHB just discharges them directly “.
Today who knows what crap she must have gone through her life roaming around South India on various trains, hammered, abused, physically assaulted or may be even trafficked.
But now with medication and full rehabilitation PRETTY will be soon on track to being normal atleast 70% .
Once the medication seeps in and she experiences love and care in the home may be she will open up more and let us know about the hurts and misery she has gone through.
We feel satisfied to have brought PRETTY out of her permanent bondage which had chained her for years for no fault of hers.
To Wholesale Careless Department ( WCD ) see how much trouble and costs we incurred to help a fellow lady who has no one in this world and you ladies at ( WCD ) are expecting us to work for Rs 2500/ Rs 5000 a month and too it's given after 1 or 2 years.
Absolutely no co-ordination between all government departments for poor women on the streets suffering from mental disabilities but all departments are 1st to highlight fancy slogans as declared by The Prime Minister & The Central Minister for Women.
On the ground reality it's all empty and taking the poorest of the poor no where , but who is going to report this To The Prime Minister & The Central Minister for Women ?
What I am saying can be verified on this particular case at Calangute police station , Candolim to Health centre & IPHB to know where and why my frustration arises.
There are many poor women crying silently on the streets and everyone is bothered about is their Salary and rules which are anti poor and against those suffering from mental disabilities.
All communications strictly through whatsapp messages only on 8380097564 .
God bless you all
Donald Fernandes
8380097564 / 7020314848
