Dr Sarada Menon, India's first lady of mental health, passes away in Chennai

Dr M Sarada Menon, India’s first woman psychiatrist in the country, who also founded the World Health Organisation recognised SCARF for the rehabilitation of schizophrenia patients, passed away at 98 years. She died due to age-related illness in Chennai on Sunday (December 5).

At a time in the late 1940s, when women doctors gravitated towards gynaecology or paediatrics, Dr Menon, took up psychiatry despite a lot of opposition from her family, friends and teachers. But she was determined after being shaken up by the sight of a few ill-kempt looking mentally ill patients, while attending a class on mental diseases at the Government Mental Hospital in Chennai, during her final year of MBBS.

She had felt sad, sympathetic and guilty that doctors were unable to help them. It was then she had made up her mind to focus on psychiatric care after her graduation from Madras Medical College. Dr Menon took the “road less taken” and from then on she committed herself to try to treat, rehabilitate and help in the recovery of mentally ill patients.

In 1957, she trained at the All India Institute of Mental Health (now called NIMHANS) in Bengaluru and after her training, she was posted to the Institute of Mental Health in Chennai, where she held the superintendent’s post for over 18 years.

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When she first started out, there were no drugs to treat the patients for a very long time. In 1957, Chlorpromazine was introduced, which was very effective in calming down schizophrenic patients. But drugs were just a part of the treatment, for her, rehabilitation of patients was more important. According to her, a psychiatrist’s job is to ensure that the person affected can live their life normally again. “If the patient is a homemaker, she must be able to go back and take care of her home and family,” she had famously said.

And, her mission to rehabilitate mentally ill patients drove her to establish the non-profit organisaation, Schizophrenia Research Foundation or SCARF in 1984. SCARF gradually became recognised as a center of repute in rehabilitation and research in disorders of the mind. The present team, led by the vice-chairman Dr R Thara, is composed of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, rehab personnel, administrative and support staff. SCARF is one of the very few NGOs in the world to be named as a Collaborating Center of the WHO for mental health research and training.

Dr R Thara told The Federal, “Dr Menon will always be remembered for being passionate about rehabilitation of mentally ill patients.” All her life, she had worked to integrate mentally ill patients back into society believing that mental illness need not be a life sentence.

Elaborating on Dr Menon’s contribution towards mental health, Dr Thara added that she had completely changed the mental hospital in Chennai. “It was like an asylum before, but Dr Menon was responsible for bringing in professional social workers and for improving the kitchen. She would personally supervise the food served to the patients, and started an industrial therapy centre to keep patients engaged. They even used to make bread and sell it to other hospitals,” said Dr Thara, adding that she put mental health above all else.

Dr Menon also worked with the government to set up psychiatric out-patient departments in all the district hospitals. Though, she had a reputation of being a strict disciplinarian, Dr Menon had a human side to her, pointed out Dr Thara. When she had retired from the government hospital, she took all her juniors, attenders and others to watch the film, “One flew over the Cuckoo Nest,” she recounted.

Dr Menon had authored many papers on mental health and had received many awards, including the Padma Bhushan in 1992. Till she was 95, this indefatigable doctor was working from her home on Ormes Road in Kilpauk.