Karwan-e-Hayat Institute for Mental Health Care

Karwan-e-Hayat Institute for Mental Health Care, is a non-profit welfare organization that provides treatment and rehabilitation services to poor and underprivileged mentally ill patients in Pakistan. Karwan-e-Hayat provides consultation, hospitalization, medicines and meals free or at highly subsidized rates to charity patients. Since we believe in providing holistic psychiatric care to the poor mentally ill patients, the treatment plan includes modern state of the art medication, quality psychiatric care and counseling and rehabilitation services. All these step by step phases help the patient in receiving:

1. Quality medication to control the symptoms of circumstantial influences or chemical imbalances in the brain;

2. Therapy and counseling to ease the mentally ill patients’ violent behavior and in many cases, suicidal tendencies; and

3. Rehabilitation to achieve functionality.

Mental illness affects not only the people who are struggling from this aliment but also distresses their families and friends. To help our patients and their families’ transit on this road to recovery, Karwan-e-Hayat believes in the holistic recovery of the patient. One of the most apposite factors encumbering mental healthcare within Pakistan is ‘stigma’. While stigma has many definitions; within Pakistan it limits an individual from gaining complete social acceptance; this can have devastating consequences. Within our society, social acceptance is crucial to an individual’s livelihood and vitality. This includes getting married, working, making friends, socialising, productivity, and daily functioning – to sum it up it affects everything. Karwan-e-Hayat, releasing the issue and its consequences, caters to not only OPD services, but also provides in-ward and out-ward unique rehabilitation services to its patients. Basic skills are also imparted to these individuals which ignites the ‘we can do’ spark and then eventually these individuals start contributing to the society.

Beginning from a small outpatient clinic in Punjab Colony in 1983, the organization has grown to high altitudes and today Karwan-e-Hayat has 3 centers.

I. A 100-bed inpatient hospital at Keamari which is known as Karwan-e-Hayat Psychiatric Care and Rehabilitation Centre. It also has an OPD, pharmacy and a day-care and rehabilitation department.

II. An OPD Clinic at Jami, Punjab Colony.

III. A Community Outreach Center in Korangi by the name of Korangi Community Psychiatric Centre.

On an average 220 patients are treated in these three centers on a daily basis.