In the areas where we work, particularly in rural areas, easily accessible mental health services simply do not exist.

To change this, we hold regular mental health camps where mentally ill people can access treatment and other services.

At a mental health camp, mentally ill people and their carers from the surrounding area all come together to be seen by a visiting psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist diagnoses them or checks their progress and then prescribes the next instalment of medication.

Mentally ill people can then go to a medication dispensary, which is part of the camp, to get their medication.

After they have been seen by the psychiatrist, they can also take part in other activities that are taking place, for example, group therapy sessions, occupational therapy sessions, consultation meetings or advocacy groups.

This system allows mentally ill people to easily get their treatment, often only minutes from their home. They no longer have to pay for expensive transport and they don’t have to spend a whole day travelling just to visit the psychiatrist. Free, effective mental health care is now a reality for mentally ill people.

Click here to see a slide show of a mental health camp >>

Also, holding a mental health camp brings issues of mental health right into the heart of the community – they aren’t locked up in a psychiatric hospital anymore.

The community can see mentally ill people getting treated right before their eyes and this has a massive impact on stigma.

Jayantha, a mentally ill man from Sri Lanka, suffered terribly from stigma and abuse in his village.

“Villagers insulted me calling me “Mad man”. They threw stones at me. Most of them never talked to me and treated me like a disgusting person. When the BasicNeeds medical camp came to our village it helped to change people’s attitudes. They witnessed how people got healed. People talk to me now.”

Mental health camps bring mental illness into the open and show people that mental illnesses are just like any other disease and are nothing to be feared. They are an important tool in the battle against stigma.