Nasha mukti kendra for families from Malout.

You are in a district where we already have a centre

Most families who ring a de-addiction centre are ringing somebody in another district. From Malout you are not.

Aasra's centre at Sri Muktsar Sahib is in this same district, and that changes a few practical things that matter more than they sound.

• You can come and look at the place before you decide anything, with the patient or without him, and be back the same day.
• Admission does not need a planned trip. It usually happens on the day you ring.
• If something has to be signed, or brought, or collected later, nobody has to lose a day at both ends to do it.

The centre is described in full, with the address, on the page for Sri Muktsar Sahib. There is no appointment system. It is residential, not a clinic that shuts in the evening, and the registration number is on the board at the gate.

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ

ਮਲੋਟ ਦੇ ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ ਲਈ ਆਸਰਾ ਦਾ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਇਸੇ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹੇ ਵਿੱਚ, ਸ੍ਰੀ ਮੁਕਤਸਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵਿਖੇ ਹੈ। ਸਰਕਾਰ ਤੋਂ ਮਨਜ਼ੂਰਸ਼ੁਦਾ, ਆਪਣਾ ਮਨੋਰੋਗ ਡਾਕਟਰ, 50 ਬੈੱਡ, ਤੇ ਸਟਾਫ਼ ਚੌਵੀ ਘੰਟੇ। ਦਾਖ਼ਲਾ ਰਾਤ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ। ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਆ ਕੇ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਦੇਖ ਲਵੋ, ਫਿਰ ਫ਼ੈਸਲਾ ਕਰੋ। ਫ਼ੋਨ +91 83601 40700।

हिंदी में

मलोट के परिवारों के लिए आसरा का केंद्र इसी ज़िले में, श्री मुक्तसर साहिब में है। सरकार से मंज़ूरशुदा, अपना मनोरोग डॉक्टर, 50 बेड, और स्टाफ़ चौबीस घंटे। दाख़िला रात में भी हो सकता है। पहले आकर केंद्र देख लीजिए, फिर फ़ैसला कीजिए। फ़ोन +91 83601 40700।

Two centres, one on either side of you

There is a second Aasra centre at Guru Nanak Nagar in Mandi Dabwali, on the Haryana side of the line. Malout is one of the few towns in this belt with an Aasra centre in both directions.

Families ask which one they should use. The honest answer is that it rarely matters medically, because the doctor, the programme and the number are the same for both. It matters for the family, not the patient. Pick whichever one is easier for the people who will actually be travelling, and tell us on the phone which you would prefer. Mandi Dabwali is covered on its own page.

Which areas families come from

Malout town, and Lambi, Bariwala, Gidderbaha and the villages spread between them. Families from the Abohar side reach us here as well, and there is a separate page for Abohar.

What families here bring him in for

• Chitta and heroin. The largest number, mostly younger men, and the one families discover last because it hides the longest. How chitta is treated.
• Doda and post. Very common across this district, 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.

He was admitted somewhere before and it did not hold

A good share of the calls from this side are second attempts. He was kept somewhere for a few weeks, he came home, and within a month the family was back where it started.

There is normally one reason for that. Only the body was treated.

Behind the drug there is very often something else that nobody looked at. Depression, anxiety, sleep that stopped years ago, or something that happened once and was never spoken about again. Treat the withdrawal only and the man walks out clean into exactly the same mind he walked in 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. Most drug rehabilitation centres in this belt have none at all.

If you are on a second or third attempt, say so on the phone. What was tried last time changes what we would suggest this time, and it is useful information rather than something to be embarrassed about.

What the treatment involves

About four months, residential throughout, in three stages.

• Medical detox first, under supervision, because the first week is the dangerous one. What detox involves.
• Counselling, daily, individual and in groups.
• Rehabilitation, the part most places skip. Routine, yoga, gym, sports, and enough time for the habit to lose its grip. The full programme.

The government route

If money is the problem, look at the government side first. The civil hospital and the district health services run de-addiction treatment, and Punjab's OOAT programme provides outpatient opioid treatment at low or no cost. What is available and what it costs changes from time to time, so confirm the current position directly with the civil hospital or the district health office rather than trusting anything you read online, including this page.

We are not going to talk you out of a free option you can actually reach. Families usually come to us after that route has been tried and the man has relapsed, or when they want him somewhere for a few months rather than at home.

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

Being treated close to home is the thing families worry about most, so it is worth being clear. No name and no photograph leaves either 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 Malout hears anything from us.