NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA Commission submitted to the Government of Maharashtra that it would be desirable that a patient once treated at the mental healthcare hospital, should be handled at the district hospital under the guidance of the district nodal officer. The SMHA must pass orders for referrals at the earliest, for ease of the treatment and useful link of district psychiatric centers. Regarding the Regional Mental Hospital, Yerwada, it was brought to the attention of the Government that the hospital management, patients and the relatives were not aware of the National Trust Act, 1999 and about the provision of legal guardianship under this act. People met the Special Rapporteur, NHRC with problems of guardianship for which solutions are available under both these acts but the hospital administration was unaware about them. 6.20 Special Rapporteur, NHRC, Dr. Vinod Aggarwal, visited Goa in order to review the implementation status of Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 by the State as on 28th August 2019 and also to review the functioning of the Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour, Bambolim, Goa on 29th August. As per Section 69 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, the SMHA has to maintain a register of mental health establishments, registered by SMHA in digital format to be called as Register of Mental Health Establishments but the register is maintained in the format prescribed under Mental Health Act, 1987 only. It was recommended that the digital register of the mental health establishments should be revised as per the requirement of the Act of 2017. Regarding the Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour, Bambolim, it was brought to the attention of the Government of UT of Goa that there are 15 % posts lying vacant in the hospital. The hospital lacks faculty in clinical psychology, psychiatric social work and psychiatric nursing to a great extent. There is only one faculty against 6 positions in the institute. The medical records are not computerized and time taken to retrieve the patient’s record is long. It suggests that when a follow up patient comes it takes him around 2-3 hours to reach the doctor. The registration is also manual and that is one of the major shortcomings of the hospital. Further, the Commission recommended the Government of UT of Goa that, as per the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of G. K. Bansal vs. State of U.P in writ petition (civil) No. 412/2016, the guidelines be made for Long Stay Patients, and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Government of India to formulate guidelines for setting up of Rehabilitation homes and then State governments should set up such homes as per the Guidelines. 6.21 Shri Ambuj Sharma, Special Monitor (Health and Mental Health), NHRC had visited Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi on 1st and 2nd October, 2019, in order to review the functioning of the Institute. Regarding a 24 hour emergency service, it was recommended to the Government of Jharkhand that some sort of tie-up can be made with both Government and private hospitals to avail CIP’s general as well as Emergency services for patients with mental illness and also to get optimum utilization of facilities available at CIP, particularly covering poorest of the poor who normally cannot either afford nor access such treatment in their remote areas. Further, in order to extend the public outreach, it was suggested that, specialized clinics running in CIP campus may also be located in off-site areas like Jails, Prisons, Remand/Destitute/ Widow Homes etc., and effective use of digital/online services to be made, to make an even higher widespread impact in the area of its operation. ANNUAL REPORT 2019-20 95