Assisted Living Facility – Saanidhaanam

This Saanidhaanam is under aegis of Sunder Jessaram Kataria Foundation.

And we do quite a lot of social work and I was very pleased and very fortunate that Sangeeta Jagtiani as well as Shobha Sachdev joined us in this journey.

Saanidhaanam is an assisted living facility for people with cerebral palsy and senior citizen.

It is an inclusive home which is situated in Palghar.

We just completed our first year this May.

We had a nice celebration for all of us.

Why did you start Saanidhaanam?

When you have a child with physical disabilities, always this thought of care is there in your mind.

Initial years it’s not so much but once the child grows older and you get older and you don’t have the capacity to deal with the physical uh labor that you have to put in, it becomes very difficult.

And then the fear sets in, what will happen after I die?

I come from a background where I have been a single child, and I’ve seen my parents going through a terminal stage and that made me think that what happens…for my parents I was there, to do everything, to press all the panic buttons…for people who have children abroad or don’t have children, where do they go?

Who are they dependent on? Neighbours? Relatives? It doesn’t give them the same confidence.

So I thought why not combine, join hands with Shobha, where you, she’s already planning a setup.

I have a vision which matches with the vision of people with disabilities, their care, their need, everything is similar.

So why not put them together and have a family like setup?

Why two separate units?

Why not an inclusive setup?

So, 10 years back, it was very strong in my mind and I met, and I spoke about it to Sangeeta and then we met Mr. Kataria and we said, ‘okay, why depend on somebody else to open a home? Why can’t we do it?’

So, that led us to think about Saanidhaanam. The seed was sown 10 years back.

It took us 10 long years to get the land, get the permissions and construct the first phase.

So finally in May 23, we were ready to operate our first phase.

What is the current capacity of Saanidhaanam?

Uh we started operation last May 23.

We have a capacity of 12 and currently we’re 80% fill and 60% are people with physical disabilities and 40% senior citizens are there, currently living with us.

Currently we’re having a twin sharing accommodation with a twin sharing carer, so the carer is there for two people.

So, at Saanidhaanam we’re providing all assisted living facilities which includes the vocational training, your hydrotherapy, therapies, medical interventions.

We have a nurse, all day nurse.

We have doctor’s team coming from Dhavale hospital, so we’re in collaboration with them.

We have a local physician coming in once a week.

So we’re looking at not only their social needs, also emotional needs, medical needs, companionship.

We have outings.

The whole day is very structured.

So there is a semi-structure within a structured day.

So they know they have to get up and come at, come for breakfast, after that they can go in for an activity.

Now what activity happens is purely up to their choice.

What…they, they want to listen to music or they want to do some vocational activity, there’s full freedom within that structure.

They go in for therapies, which could include your one to one therapy or just a walk in a park or a swim.

All of it goes under therapy, all of it goes under activity.

So, within a structure there is a lot of freedom, a flexibility.

Plus we have weekly visits, because we want them to be out, we don’t want them secluded in this closed structure, that this is your home and you must only be here.

No, once a week we will hire, we have our own vehicle as well as we’ve had hired vehicles.

We go to restaurants for lunches, dinners, to parks, to lakes, to dams, to beaches.

They have to be seeing the outside world, the outside world needs to be seeing them, it’s truly Inclusive.

There is no stop at what happens, whatever happens in your house, happens at Saanidhaanam.

So Saanidhaanam is also working at two levels, the microlevel is what I already explained and the mezzo where they’re trying to sensitize the community.

So, we conduct a lot of training programs for college students and teachers.

Yeah, we have been representing Saanidhaanam at the Purple Fest right from the two years.

Uh we are a part of a consortium which is assisted living facility pan India.

We had a conference at Saanidhaanam where all of us met and we discussed our problems and we draw up an SOP so that we can take this assisted living facility to another level.

I’m Ravi Nambodari, senior citizen. My son Randhir is 32 years, he is of cerebral palsy.

So, this, after my wife dies, it became difficult for us to handle.

So, this is a godsend opportunity that Saanidhaanam is there, which welcomes both senior citizens and adults with disability.

So it worked very well.

And in any case, I knew the promoters, at least Sangeeta ma’am and Shobha ma’am in beginning only, so, it was well received.