Nasha mukti kendra for families from Faridkot.

Faridkot has a government medical college, so the question here is different

Most districts do not have what Faridkot has. Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital is here, it runs a government de-addiction centre, and Punjab's OOAT programme provides outpatient opioid treatment free or at low cost across the state.

So the honest question for a Faridkot family is not "where is the nearest centre". There is one. The question is which kind of help the man in your house actually needs.

• If he wants to stop and will keep appointments, the government route is a real option and you should try it first. Outpatient treatment lets him keep working and costs a fraction of anything private.
• If he has already tried that and relapsed, or he cannot get through a day at home without it, then outpatient is the wrong tool and no amount of repeating it will change that. What that man needs is to be somewhere else for a few months.

That second situation is the one families ring us about. We are not an alternative to the government centre. We are what a good number of families reach for after it, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise.

What is available at any given time changes, so confirm the current position directly with the hospital or the district health office rather than trusting anything you read online, including this page.

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ

ਫ਼ਰੀਦਕੋਟ ਤੋਂ ਕਾਫ਼ੀ ਪਰਿਵਾਰ ਸਾਡੇ ਕੋਲ ਆਉਂਦੇ ਨੇ। ਆਸਰਾ ਡਰੋਲੀ ਭਾਈ, ਮੋਗਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਤੋਂ ਮਨਜ਼ੂਰਸ਼ੁਦਾ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਹੈ। ਆਪਣਾ ਮਨੋਰੋਗ ਡਾਕਟਰ, 50 ਬੈੱਡ, ਤੇ ਸਟਾਫ਼ ਚੌਵੀ ਘੰਟੇ। ਦਾਖ਼ਲਾ ਰਾਤ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ। ਫ਼ੋਨ ਕਰੋ +91 83601 40700।

हिंदी में

फ़रीदकोट से काफ़ी परिवार हमारे पास आते हैं। आसरा डरोली भाई, मोगा में सरकार से मंज़ूरशुदा केंद्र है। अपना मनोरोग डॉक्टर, 50 बेड, और स्टाफ़ चौबीस घंटे। दाख़िला रात में भी हो सकता है। फ़ोन करें +91 83601 40700।

Which parts of the district families come from

Faridkot city, and Kotkapura, Jaitu, Sadiq, Bajakhana and the villages around them. Faridkot borders Moga district, so for most families here ours is the neighbouring district rather than a journey, and the paperwork side of an admission does not eat a day at both ends.

Why the fourth month is the one that matters

What families from Faridkot tell us on the phone is nearly always the same. He was admitted somewhere, kept for a few weeks, came home, and was back on it within a month.

That happens for one reason. Only the body was treated.

Behind the drug there is very often something else. Depression, anxiety, sleep that stopped years ago, or something that happened once and was never spoken about again. If nobody treats that, he walks out clean and comes back to exactly the mind he left with. Aasra has its own consultant psychiatrist on staff, Dr. Amanullah Ghori, M.B.B.S., DPM, not a doctor who visits twice a week.

Our programme runs about four months, residential throughout.

• Medical detox first, under supervision, because the first week is the dangerous one. What detox involves.
• Counselling every day, individual and in groups, which is where the reason behind the drug gets dealt with.
• Rehabilitation, the part most places skip. Routine, yoga, gym, sports, and enough time for the habit to lose its grip. The full programme.

What addiction looks like in this part of Malwa

• Chitta and heroin. The largest number, mostly younger men, and the one families discover last because it hides longest. How chitta is treated.
• Doda and post. Older men more often than young, and treated as ordinary for so long that nobody counts it as a drug until the body starts giving way. How doda is treated.
• Medical store tablets. Started for pain or for sleep and carried on long after the reason went away. How that is treated.
• Alcohol. The one families try hardest to handle themselves, and the one where stopping suddenly at home can cause fits and can kill. How alcohol is treated.

How to check any centre before you admit someone

This applies to us as much as to anybody else, and you should do it before you hand over a member of your family.

• Ask for the registration number and look for it written up at the gate. Ours is 24/HMH/2017-18.
• Ask whether the psychiatrist is on staff or visiting, and how often he actually sees each patient.
• Go and look at the place first, before you decide anything. Any centre that discourages a family from visiting has told you something.
• Ask what happens after discharge, because that is where the relapse lives.

You can come and see ours with the patient or without him. There is no appointment system. Photographs of the rooms, the counselling hall, the ground and the gym are in the gallery, and every one of them is of our own centre.

Bringing someone who does not want to come

Almost nobody arrives here willingly. If he is refusing, that is not a reason to wait, it is the usual starting point.

Ring and tell us the whole situation, including the parts that are hard to say on the phone. Never plan it alone at the last minute, and never make a promise you cannot keep, because it costs you his trust for months afterwards.

Confidentiality

No name and no photograph leaves this centre without written permission from the family. The men in our video testimonials chose to speak. Most families do not, and that is completely normal. Nobody in Faridkot hears anything from us.