Future Direction
Dial 100 | The Banyan Village | Community Mental Health Programme | Urban Health Clinic | District Mental Health Programme | Resource Centre | Networking
The Banyan Village
– a dream of rural idyll
The vision of The Banyan
is that no person with mental illness should be locked away
in an institution but has the right to lead a life of dignity
and to live as part of the mainstream society. With this in
mind, The Banyan’s long-term residents will be moved
from the Long-StayHome in Otteri
to the outskirts of Chennai, the coastal Kovalakuppam area.
The centre will have a great deal of open space, allowing the residents to live comfortably
in an open village-like community as opposed to an institutional
set up. The centre will assume the special care requirements
of the residents but also offer a familiar rural environment
for the women, where the residents will share cottage type
group homes and pursue a simple, eco-friendly lifestyle. The
idea is to take a step towards self-sufficiency, whereby the
women will grow their own vegetables and fruit, prepare their
own food, and maintain a small enterprise to generate income
for the community. The community will also strive to live
in harmony and collaboration with the adjacent rural communities.
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