#Communities4Children – How Our Follow Up In Saravanan’s Community Helped Address His Latent Mental Health Condition

We found 15-year-old Saravanan at the Katpadi Railway Station all alone and clueless about where to go and what to do. He seemed like he was suffering from a psychological issue, so we took him to the child help desk and made him feel safe and comfortable.

Why did he leave home…?

While taking to Saravanan, during the counselling session, we found out that he dropped out of school in standard 6 and was not attending school at the moment. He told us that after his father passed away, he was living with his mother and brother in a rented home without basic sanitation facilities. Saravanan’s mother was a daily wage worker trying to make ends meet for her sons, and his brother had recently graduated from the 10^th grade.

Saravanan’s mother was immediately contacted, and he was handed over to her after the paperwork was duly completed.

How the pandemic affected Saravanan and his family

In June 2020, we contacted Saravanan’s family as part of our regular follow up and discovered that the family has been severely affected due to the covid-19 pandemic. Saravanan’s mother had lost her job and it became very difficult for her to earn a living and look after her children. During a home visit, RCI decided to support the family by providing them with grocery kits which would last a few weeks and our team delivered the kits thrice making sure that everyone in the family was safe and healthy.

Family counselling session at the shelter

We requested Saravanan’s mother to come visit the open shelter with him for a counselling session. During the counselling session, Saravanan’s mother told us that he has a psychological issue because of which, he often ran away from home. We suggested that she take Saravanan for psychiatric treatment at the Bagayam Mental Health hospital in Vellore. She then took Saravanan to the hospital and got him admitted for further treatment with the help of RCI.

Today, we continue to support Saravanan and his family with grocery kits and shall follow up with him until his treatment is complete.