[Marisa] Week 4

The last week has been fantastic, excellent, incredible, and a whole list of positive adjectives! I finished up my work with the Banyan in order to be able to  the psychiatrist who works in Delhi (who I mentioned in my last post) whom I met at the Banyan's round table discussion the previous weekend. I have plans to see him and visit his hospital the upcoming week. I have left Chennai and have been in Delhi for a few days with fellow CSAS fellows, Tessa and Brad!

My last day at the Banyan consisted of one of the most worthwhile experiences that I presume I will have in India. I was given the opportunity to travel with one of the Banyan workers to observe the home visit of a man with a mental illness, who has been coming to the outpatient clinics of the Banyan for some time. At the very least, this one and a half hour experience opened my eyes as I first-handedly observed how the same mental illnesses that are easily controlled in Western populations, spiral out of hand in the homeless population of Chennai due to an immense lack of resources. The entire session I became increasingly frustrated, knowing that though ways to control the illness exist in our world, it is next to completely inaccessible for these clients in Chennai. Though I have now left work at the Banyan, ending with the home visit has really inspired me to want to return to India in the future and help out in any way I can in treating mental illness. The Banyan is an amazing organization and they deserve endless credit for the positive attitude and environment that they have created around mental illness. The Banyan really is one of a kind and after a deeper look into their organization, I truly believe their approach to mental health is healthy and deserves to be examined and implicated on a universal scale.

I have now traveled to Delhi in order to visit the hospital of the doctor I previously mentioned. His hospital is called the Institute of Allied and Behavioural Sciences and I have plans to visit this upcoming Wednesday. Since I arrived in Delhi this past weekend, I have spent a bit of time with Tessa and Brad, who are conducting their research projects in Delhi. Yesterday, we made the trip to Agra to see the beautiful Taj Mahal. Below is a picture of the three of us, as well as the classic “holding up the Taj Mahal” picture, going along with Eric’s picture!