Dr A Jha's Volunteering experience in Nepal

NDA (UK) link

 JANAKPUR MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCE CENTRE

Janakpur Mental Health Project is a 5-year charity project of the NDA (UK) Psychiatry chapter. Janakpur is one of the 14 administrative zones situated in the southeast Nepal and has a population of over one million people. There is a big general hospital in Jankpurdham, the zonal head quarter, as well as a teaching hospital nearby. These hospitals offer secondary care services in almost all common specialities except psychiatry. There is not even a private psychiatrist in the town. The NDA (UK) psychiatry section persuades SAF-Nepal and the Janki Medical College to join hands in establishing a Mental Health Care Centre to offer a monthly psychiatry clinic and a Day Centre. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on the occasion of a Mental Health Camp in September 2008. A visiting psychiatrist and a Mental Health Care In-charge were appointed at a NDA (UK) /SAF-Nepal organised mental health training workshop for doctors and health workers on 18 January 2009. The proposed mental health services are due to commence on 15 February 2009. The Psychiatry section of the NDA (UK) has offered to support the Janakpur Mental Health charity by offering at least £1000 per year for 5 years. Dr. Arun Jha has been raising the necessary fund through Hertfordshire Transcultural Psychiatry Forum.

MEMORY CLINIC

Dr. Acyut Dhital and Dr. Kapil Rijal donated SAF Nepal a cheque of £365 each (total £730) towards the drug budget of monthly mental health clinics in Damak and Dhalkewar. The cheques were handed by the Nepalese Ambassador to Dr. Shailendra Adhikari, a visiting psychiatrist from Kathmandu Medical College. Dr. Adhikari was in the UK for his specialist training arranged by the NDA (UK) Psychiatry section to help him set up a memory clinic in Kathmandu, first of its kind in Nepal.