Rabin Giri

Dharan, June 16:

Prakash Chaudhary (name changed), 22, of Saptari district, had left for Malaysia last year — to make money. After a six-month stint, he the homesickness bug bit him. So badly, that two months later his employer had to send him back to Nepal. The same was the case with Indra Basnet of Jhapa, who returned home after working in Saudi Arabia for 10 months. Both Chaudhary and Basnet are undergoing treatment in the psychiatric department of the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Dharan. They are said to be suffering from mental trauma. Of the 17 patients being treated at the psychiatric department, four are those who returned home after working abroad. According to Dr Pramod Syangbo, chief of the department, around 15-20 per cent of the 323 mental trauma patients admitted at the BPKIHS until May 13 were people who had returned home after working abroad. Dr Syangbo said mental trauma is mainly a result of lack of social coordination. Plai-nly put, the lack of familiar faces around th-em disbalanced them.