Support groups
The people who already know what you are describing.
Four groups run at Manas, alongside Manodaya Trust. They are not therapy sessions and they are not lectures — they are rooms full of people who do not need the situation explained to them.
Phoenix
फिनिक्सPeople living with, and recovering from, schizophrenia
A group for those who have been through it, run on the understanding that recovery is something people do alongside each other.
Protsahan
प्रोत्साहनCarers and families
For the people looking after someone with schizophrenia — who carry a great deal and are rarely asked how they are.
Chintan
चिंतनPeople with OCD
A dedicated group for obsessive-compulsive disorder, where the specific shape of the illness is understood without explanation.
TEA Group
Anyone under sustained stress
The centre’s stress-management group.
Why a group, when there is already a doctor?
Isolation is part of the illness
Serious mental illness narrows a life to the house and the clinic. A group is often the first ordinary social thing a person does again.
Carers have nowhere to put it
Families carry years of this and are rarely asked how they are managing. Protsahan exists because the answer is usually “not very well, but I cannot say so at home”.
Recovery is something people copy
Being told recovery is possible helps less than sitting opposite somebody it happened to. That is the whole idea behind Phoenix.
Joining one
Groups meet at the centre and are open to people under treatment at Manas and, in most cases, to those who are not. Ring +91 84259 80004 to ask when the next meeting of a particular group is — the schedule varies, so it is worth checking rather than turning up.
Ask about a group
Tell us which one, or just describe the situation and we will point you at the right one.
Manas Psychological Health Centre, Ramnagar, Dombivli (East), Maharashtra 421 201