KOZHIKODE: The middle-aged patient had recovered well enough to be discharged. Months of treatment at the Government Mental Health Centre in Kuthiravattam, Kozhikode, had restored stability, and hospital staff repeatedly contacted the family to take the person home. No one came. Days turned into weeks, hope gave way to silence, and the emotional rejection eventually triggered a severe relapse. The patient, who was ready to begin life again, was forced back into intensive psychiatric care.
Mental-health professionals say this is no longer an isolated tragedy. Across Kerala, government psychiatric institutions are increasingly housing people who have already recovered medically, but because they have been abandoned by their families or admitted under false identities, have nowhere else to go.
The numbers reveal the scale of the crisis. More than 175 patients who have made a recovery continue to remain institutionalised across Kerala’s major government mental health centres despite being medically fit for discharge. Around 80 persons are awaiting rehabilitation or family acceptance in Kozhikode. There are 55 similar cases at the Mental Health Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and around 40 in Thrissur. Mental-health advocates believe the actual number across long-term psychiatric institutions is significantly higher.
Psychiatrists argue that Kerala is facing a rehabilitation crisis rather than a treatment crisis. For many patients, the hospital has become a permanent address. Families who admitted them never returned. Contact numbers stopped working. Addresses recorded during admission were found to be false or incomplete. Elderly patients, homeless individuals and migrant workers whose relatives cannot be traced are among the most vulnerable.
The consequences extend far beyond individual suffering. Recovered patients occupying long-term hospital beds are placing enormous pressure on psychiatric institutions that are already operating beyond capacity. The Kuthiravattam facility has a sanctioned capacity of 474 beds, but accommodates more than 500 inpatients, while treating nearly 3,000 outpatients every month.