Perambalur police in T.N. rescue 24 wandering mentally ill persons in one year, reunite 11 with families

In December second week last year, a Perambalur police team rescued a nearly 40-year-old mentally ill woman found wandering at Elambalur and its surrounding areas in the district and handed them over to a private home for the mentally ill here to take care of her.

Treatment coupled with sustained counselling enabled in establishing the identity of the woman and ascertaining the whereabouts of her family members. More than a month after the woman was admitted to the home, she was reunited with her husband in early February through a joint effort of the police, health department, and the private home.

On Wednesday, another wandering mentally ill woman from Villupuram district admitted to the same home was reunited with her sister post treatment.  These two incidents are among the series of similar missions carried out by the Anti Child Trafficking Unit of the Perambalur Police in rescuing wandering mentally ill persons from different places in the district and reuniting some of them with their respective family members after establishing the genuineness.

The Perambalur police in the last one year had rescued 24 wandering mentally ill persons and successfully reunited 11 of them, including seven women with their respective family members after making strenuous efforts. Some of the reunited persons were from other States.  Every time a mentally ill wandering person is found during patrolling, they are immediately rescued and taken to the private home for the mentally ill functioning near Perambalur, said police sources. 

In many instances such rescued persons neither know their names or the place they hail from. It is only after providing them a safe environment in the home where they are provided with food, bed, and adequate rest coupled with treatment by a government psychiatrist and counselling by the social workers that they begin to slowly disclose who they are and informatioh about their family members, said the sources.

Basic medical screening of such persons are done with support from the Health Department once they are brought to the home to find out their physical condition and to ascertain if they had any other ailments. The treatment begins accordingly by the psychiatrist who makes a visit once a week to the home to determine the mental health condition of the patient and the progress made, the sources said. 

The social workers begin to maintain a rapport slowly with the rescued persons to ascertain the whereabouts of their family members in an effort to reunite them.  It is after a slow and steady process that the whereabouts of the family members get to be known and conveyed to them.

The rescued persons are reunited with their family members after completion of treatment and signs of improvements and after meticulously ascertaining the genuineness by checking the relevant documents in their possession, the sources said. Counselling would be done for the family members to do a follow up of the condition of the reunited persons.