Transforming lives in India through Person-centred thinking tools
Dimensions welcomed friends from the Institute for Person-Centred Approaches in India (IPCAI) to the UK last week, to share best practice in person-centred support.
As part of this, one of the visitors, Anish, told us an inspiring story of how person-centred thinking tools transformed his life.
In 2009, Anish was in the process of being interviewed for the Indian Space Research Organisation – India’s equivalent of NASA. Travelling back home to Kerala, Anish was crossing a railway track when he tripped.
His head hit the rails and he lost consciousness. “When I awoke, I could see an express train bearing down on me,” Anish told us.
Anish spoke of being in hospital and asking if he was still alive and if he still had various parts of his body.
Unfortunately for Anish the doctors told him that they had had no option but to amputate his right arm above the elbow and left leg below the knee. They had been able to save his left hand, but only his thumb would regain any feeling.
Suddenly, a driven and independent young man found himself unable to do the things he loved or the simple things like brushing his teeth and eating food.
He spoke of how he had asked and prayed for a mercy killing, because his life was over and he didn’t want to be alive anymore. For months he cried and was in despair.
But slowly Anish began to learn to walk again and do daily routines using his artificial limbs. Feeling a little hopeful once more, he attended a workshop led by Mathew Kanamala, the director of IPCAI, offering soft skills training and counselling.
It was here that Anish became familiar with the person-centred thinking tools we use, such as ‘What’s working/not working’ and the One Page Profiles.
After a while, Mathew said to him, “I now need your abilities, not your disabilities.”
Anish made the decision at that point to become a success. He began to learn to ride a bicycle, then a motorcycle and finally a car.
Once he passed his driving test he then challenged the Motor Vehicles Department because they refused to grant driving licences to those without arms – and after a year he got the licence and now drives a non-adapted car.
He then took up a challenge to go for the arduous Sabarimala Pilgrimage. “I wanted to prove to myself that I am equally strong and capable like others who are called ‘normal’,” he explained.
Anish has now become a well-known and respected campaigner for the rights of people like him who live with physical impairments.
He has successfully persuaded the Kerala State Road Transport Commissioner to establish a special parking area for ‘differently abled persons’ in government and public institutions and, since joining IPCAI in 2012, he has conducted more than 1,000 workshops in schools, colleges, hospitals and other institutions, to share his story and demonstrate to others what we can achieve in adversity through person-centred approaches.
Anish, you are an inspiration for how person-centred tools and approaches can lead to transformational change in people’s lives.