AFG Projects: Elderly: Mentally Ill
Tbilisi Psychoneurological Home Care Program
Personal Observations from the Executive Director: Dr. Nestan Duduchava is the director of the Psychoneurological Dispensary, a public clinic which is the main organization providing outpatient psychiatric care to poor elderly patients in Tbilisi. Because her patients receive a pitifully low government pension of only $8-$12 a month, they cannot afford the transportation costs to obtain their medicines at the clinic. With help from AFG and the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Foundation, Nestan was able to purchase a minivan to take medical care, medicines and food to her homebound patients. This vehicle of mercy greatly benefits her patients with the regular administration of their psychiatric drugs. I visited two of her schizophrenic patients, one of whom was living with his 90-year-old blind father and the other was living with her 60-year-old blind daughter. Another visit was to a bedridden elderly woman who was freezing in her small unheated apartment. Thanks to the Nef Foundation, we were able to arrange for her apartment to be connected to gas so she could have heat.
AFG Accomplishments: AFG and the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Foundation have:
- Provided funds to pay for medicines for psychotic and neurotic patients.
- Provided funds to purchase a vehicle for the delivery of medicines and food to the homebound patients. A second car was purchased to replace the first car after it was stolen.
- Provided financial support for lighting and heat for the poorest lonely patients.
- Provided funds to give emergency assistance to elderly earthquake victims in 2002.
Current Needs: The Tbilisi Psychoneurological Home Care Program needs:
- Additional funds for the continuation of the current program for medicines, food, fuel and repair of the vehicle.
- Funds to expand the program to a higher level because there are more elderly patients in Tbilisi that have not yet been served by the Dispensary. In 2004, only 150 out of 670 elderly patients were being serviced by the home care program.
