Community work

From the international (World Health Organisation) to local scales there has been a drive to move mental healthcare away from institutions and large hospitals to community-based services. Community support has several advantages:

• It enables those suffering mental illness to remain in their home communities, with benefits of extra social support.
• It can enable those without much social support to live independently.
• It can help sustain good mental health and progress made by patients after inpatient or outpatient care and assessment.
• It can encompasss cost-effective methods of healthcare.
• It can benefit whole communities by increasing their capacity to manage and understanding of mental illness.

However, there are limitations to community-care and it is used carefully in combination with inpatient and outpatient care after dialogue between patient, family and Antara's staff.

Social worker visits

The main-stay of community care is visits by social-workers to patient's homes. Often this can mean travelling to some distant, or remote communities. Social workers may assist by finding out how the patient is progressing, solving problems with access to care (such as transport problems), and optimising home management. Often they are a reassuring presence in a patient's recovery or ongoing struggle with mental health problems.

Health camps

Antara extends its outpatient's work by holding one-off (or intermittent) health camps in remote or isolated communities. This helps assess the prevalence of problems in the area, a chance to raise awareness of mental health problems and reduce stigma, and finally a point  for referral back to ongoing Antara facilities or satellite clinics.

Health Promotion

Self-Help groups

Antara promotes self-help groups in order to strengthen families and communities or those affected by mental illness to be able to manage mental illness at home. The Child Guidance Team provides a regular meeting place for families of children with mental health problems. It is a useful way to transfer lay and technical knowledge and to offer mutual support or break down the isolation families feel or endure.

School visits and education

Antara is active in raising awareness of mental health problems through novel methods. It has a successful programme of visiting local schools or other organisations with those affected by mental illness taking centre stage to talk about their own experiences.

In another programme, Antara welcomes groups, including school children, to come to Antara and understand its work. The children and patients both participate in a performance of dance, drama and music so breaking down stigma and the fear of mental illness at an early age.

Mental Health Fair

Every year Antara hosts a Mental Health Fair which attracts 1000's of people from surrounding communities. Antaragram literally opens its gates to the wider society and as well as raising awareness this event raises much needed funds for subsidising treatment.