The Banyan
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| Founder | Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumariss |
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| Type | NGO |
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| Website | www.thebanyan.org |
The Banyan is an non-governmental organization based in Chennai, India was founded in 1993 by Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar to cater to the mentally ill and homeless women in the city. Over the past two decades, has expanded to offer a range of comprehensive mental health solutions for men and women who are either homeless, or living in a state of abject poverty.
This includes emergency care and critical time interventions offered across 2 hospital based settings, and one shelter for homeless persons with psychosocial disabilities, operated in collaboration with the Corporation of Chennai under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), reaching out to 162 individuals in distress at any given point of time. Over 3400 individuals have accessed these services since 1993.
The Banyan's NALAM programme offers well-being oriented outpatient clinics and community based mental health care in both urban and rural areas. These clinics provide free of charge and mental health and social care services, address distress, common mental disorders and severe mental disorders. They are offered across 15 service access points, reaching out to a population of approximately 7 lakhs. NALAM has reached out to over 10,000 individuals and has a current active registry of 2000 individuals.
For those who experience high support needs, The Banyan offers a range of inclusive living options, over 200 individuals with moderate to severe mental health issues, today live in communities & homelike environments with supportive services across 6 districts in 3 States (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra).
The Banyan's sister organisation - The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), was founded in 2007, and works towards consolidating findings and experiences from The Banyan, and disseminating it across multiple stakeholders within the mental health and development spaces. BALM works on building practice based evidence and contributing to a knowledge base, that aids in addressing treatment and care gaps, particularly in the context of vulnerable individuals and groups. It uses capacity building, education programmes (diploma, masters’, and PhD programmes) in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), research, collaborative work (with civil society organisations, local governments, disability movements, mental health user-caregiver groups, and Central and State Government) and construction of think tanks, as strategies to influence progressive policies and plans.
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