Children in India with psychiatric problems will soon be treated in a ward all their own at a hospital in North India. It is a project of the Methodist Church in India. The ward will be part of a new wing being built at the Nur Manzil Psychiatric Centre, which until now has kept children on the same wards as adult psychiatric cases because it lacked a separate children's ward, said Dr. Sarla E. Lall, executive secretary of the Health and Relief unit of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM).

Nur Manzil is in Lucknow, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and is India's only Christian-run psychiatric hospital, Lall said. It was founded in 1950 by the Methodist missionary and evangelist Dr. E. Stanley Jones.

Once construction is wrapped up in late December, the new wing will be furnished, in time for a planned March dedication and opening, Lall said.

Lall visited India in early November to check progress on the new wing and to arrange a consultant's review of another Methodist facility, the Clara Swain Hospital, in Bareilly, also in Uttar Pradesh. Swain has had maintenance and staffing problems in recent years, and the consultant's written findings will help GBGM decide what's next for the hospital, Lall said.

In the Nur Manzil project, the new wing replaces what had been a decrepit domed structure that was more than a century old and unfit for public use. "The older building was so old it was crumbling and had become dangerous," Lall said.

The new wing will add 50 beds to the hospital, bringing to 85 the number of beds for inpatients, Lall said. More than 1,500 outpatients are treated yearly at Nur Manzil, which also has about 25 halfway houses and semi-residential units.

The separate children's ward will also allow the use of games and other "play therapies," that are seen as an important tool in treating child patients, Lall said.

Work on the new wing began last year, financed with $400,000 through GBGM.

To do a wide-ranging review of the Clara Swain Hospital, GBGM has retained Dr. Cherian Thomas, director of the Christian Medical Association of India (CMAI) and his wife, Dr. Kalindi Thomas. They'll make their assessment from December 2nd through 4th and report their findings to GBGM in January. GBGM will then consider what action is warranted.

"They will do a complete assessment in terms of the need for health services in that area, the services the hospital is providing and can provide, and, in order to be viable in the future, what changes in terms of building, equipment, personnel, need to take place," Lall said.

Clara Swain Hospital is the oldest and largest Methodist hospital in India. It was started in 1870 as the first hospital for women and children in southern Asia. It has about 300 beds, offers general services as well as orthopedics, thoracic surgery, and eye and dental services, and maintains a nursing school.

But in recent years Swain has developed problems, Lall said. It needs new equipment, its operation theaters need to be rebuilt, and it needs changes in its leadership and staffing, she said. One option would be to close Swain, another to renovate and rebuild.

"Even though it is in real bad shape, the local community does not want it closed," Lall said. "There are patients coming to the hospital, there are doctors working there, and it is a needed service in that area. There is not any big hospital in that particular city that can take the place of Clara Swain."

The hospital was named for Dr. Clara Swain, who served as a medical missionary years before other women medical missionaries came to India.

November 25, 1998