Earlier this month, the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) completed 40 years of dedicated service and treatment for persons with mental illness. In the 1980s, when it was a struggle to establish an exclusive centre to treat mental illnesses, Sarada Menon, India’s first woman psychiatrist, who retired from the Institute of Mental Health, Chennai, as its superintendent, wanted to start an organisation to rehabilitate recovered patients. This is the short story of how Scarf was born.
“Many people did not understand what schizophrenia was and were reluctant to be associated with us or donate for the cause,” recalled Scarf’s vice-chairman R. Thara.
“We did a community survey and found that such people had been locked up for seven to 10 years,” said C.K. Gariyali, a former bureaucrat, and another founding member.
