Rehabilitation
Your rights and consent
Is admission voluntary?
Voluntary, by default. An adult comes in of their own accord, gives their own consent, and can raise concerns or ask to leave — and that is a conversation, not a refusal. Indian law does allow a narrow exception, called supported admission under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, for situations where a person is genuinely unable to make that decision themselves and is at serious risk. It is a legal process with its own safeguards and review, not a service a family can arrange on request, and it is not how the great majority of admissions happen. If you are a relative hoping someone can simply be brought in, the honest answer is to talk to us early — persuading someone usually travels further than forcing them.
We won't come and take an adult anywhere.
There is no team that arrives at the house, no vehicle waiting outside, no arrangement where someone is collected while they are asleep or told they are going somewhere else. Whatever you may have been told is possible, we do not do it. A person removed from their home against their will arrives at treatment having just learned that the people closest to them will overpower them — and the work we would then be asking them to do is honest, voluntary and hard. It does not survive that beginning.
We won't admit an adult who hasn't agreed to come in.
Admission starts with the person saying yes. The one narrow exception is not ours to grant: Indian law provides for supported admission under the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, where a person's nominated representative may support an admission for someone who is unable to make that decision themselves. It requires a clinical examination, it is time-bound, and it is reviewable by a Mental Health Review Board. It exists as a safeguard for someone who cannot decide — not as a route around someone who has decided and said no. It is a legal protection, not a service, and it cannot be bought.
Is my recovery completely confidential?
Yes. Enquiries, assessment, and treatment are private and judgement-free. Family are only involved with your consent, and your information is handled in line with India's data-protection law.
Consent decides what we can share
The person in the programme is an adult, and what is shared about their care is theirs to decide. Updates go to the family they agree to, covering what they agree to. If they would rather something stayed between them and their therapist, it does — including from parents and from a spouse. We will always tell you when we cannot share something. We will not tell you what it was. That boundary is not us being difficult with you; it is the reason the person you love can say true things in that room at all, and it is what recovery is built on.
We won't build a file on someone who hasn't asked us to.
We do not ask you for their name, their number, their age, what they are using, or how much. You do not need to give us any of that for us to help you, and we would rather you did not. Tell us about your situation instead. The person you are worried about has not asked us for anything, and until they do, there is nothing about them for us to keep.
We won't tell you whether they've ever contacted us.
If you ask whether they have called us, we will not answer — not yes, not no, not a pause you could read something into. Confirming it would be a disclosure just as much as reading you their file. We know how that lands when you are frightened. It is the same rule that means if they ever do call us, nobody will be told either — and that is precisely what makes calling possible for them.
Enquiries, assessment and treatment are private. The narrow legal exceptions are published rather than buried — read them before you decide.
Before anything else
This is recovery care, not emergency care
This is structured addiction recovery, not emergency care. If someone is in immediate danger — overdose, severe withdrawal, or risk to life — contact your local emergency number or nearest hospital right away.
Immediate danger
If you or someone near you is in immediate danger, call 112 or go to the nearest hospital. That comes before anything else on this website.
Tele-MANAS (Govt. of India)
Call 14416. National tele mental-health programme. Also 1-800-891-4416.
KIRAN Helpline
Call 1800-599-0019. Ministry of Social Justice mental-health rehabilitation helpline.
AASRA
Call +91 98204 66726. Suicide prevention & emotional support.
iCall (TISS)
Call +91 91529 87821. Psychosocial helpline by trained counsellors.
Vandrevala Foundation
Call 1860-266-2345. Free mental-health support & crisis line.
If someone is in danger right now
Questions, answered