TURNING POINT is a voluntary Non Governmental
Organization (Registered under Societies Registration Act XXVI of Govt. of
West Bengal 1961) engaged in Mental Rehabilitation in a Day-Care Center. The
principal aim is to rehabilitate the mentally challenged persons in the
society and to fight against the stigma of “ mad” or “Pagal” associated with
mental health, which severely criticizes a person who is but only mentally
sick and can recover easily.
Knowing Turning Point :
In India, when mental illness strikes to an individual there
arises a lot complicacies both with the individual & his family
and a sense of utter loss precipitates which may not easily be
warded off due to the lack of sufficient resources.
The idea of
their child’s handicap in many cases is also initially
difficult to comprehend for many parents due to the lack of
awareness and acceptance of mental illness. Intense
frustration, grievance among family members and anxiety of
their child’s well being, cost of living & future is a
growing problem for the caregivers.
As for the patients, once they suffer from a mental illness
they face successive failures in major fields of life and
stigma retreats to seclusion. The society which is also not
aware and conscious about the commonness & probability of
mental illness, and not being aware of the first hand
empathy for persons suffering, cannot readily or
systematically provide hospitable opportunities that might
alleviate a mental problem or provide scope for creativity
to solutions to the troubles face by both parents & the
person suffering. Most NGO’s had only been able to achieve
meager outputs from them. To provide vocational scope for
the intelligent mentally ill & to ensure full utilization of
their capabilities, who have lost their career due to
prolonged illness, Clinical Psychologist Ishita Sanyal
decided to establish a Day Care Center to revive these
patients from the misery of seclusion, joblessness &
discrimination so society does not scorn them.
Nobel
Laureate Professor Amartya Sen, overwhelmed with the
promising attitude of Turning Point most readily offered his
declaration that he should feel proud to be the patron of
this organization with a positive goal. And thus Turning
Point was founded in 1998 with a valor to help those
unfortunates whose miseries have not been extremely
seriously dealt with, neglected, and secluding an individual
for the sake of a mental problem was sparsely limelighted as
an attitude of inhumanity & insult to brotherhood.
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