INDIRA’s STORY

Indira is 56 years old, she first thought of becoming a nurse after noticing a group of women working at a health post near her father’s home – “The first thing I noticed was their uniform, I really liked it!”  Indira works as a senior nurse in Nepal’s only state-run mental health hospital.

“My father always wanted me to be a nurse, and both him and all my family were very supportive of me. But they were not pleased when I told him I wanted to work in mental health”.

In many parts of the world, working in mental health care is not always commended by families and communities because of the stigma attached to mental illness.

Indira’s journey through nursing started in a maternity hospital in Nepal where she worked for 16 years, followed by a post with an international NGO. She was always curious, but also apprehensive, about working in a mental health unit: “I was very afraid to join a mental health service, but I decided to give it a go.  In the first few months after joining the hospital, I could not sleep. I feared the patients and worried about what others told me about what could happen to me – “you will get their diseases and become mad yourself!”.

The mental health hospital in Nepal where Indira works today is doing extraordinary work under very challenging circumstances: “Our country has hardly any mental health services; the stigma of mental illness is huge, and most of the people tend to turn to faith healers for help. Coming to this hospital is for many their last resort, which means people are often admitted in a terrible state, very ill and vulnerable. And unfortunately, we do not have enough beds for everyone”.

“This is a great and unique hospital, functioning in a country where very little money is put into mental health care. We only have 50 beds and there is hardly any space in between them; this also means that at times, the security of both patients and staff is compromised”.

In Nepal, suicide is the leading cause of death of women of working age. Gender-based violence is often an underlying cause for women and girls admitted to inpatient care. Despite this, the total number of mental health nurses working in the country with a population of 30 million, is less than 40, and thousands more are needed to protect people experiencing mental illness from harm.

Nurses are a key part of our projects to improve mental health care. As an organisation fighting for better mental health care for all, one of our core goals is to train and equip more nurses in mental health care in South Asia. Local Mental Health Nurses will fight the stigma that surrounds mental illness, and support people in their recovery. Nurses will inspire other young people to have an active role in changing local perceptions of mental well-being.

This Christmas, with your support we can train more Mental Health Nurses in communities that have none and bring hope for human rights.