Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | 28th November 2019: Ceasefire Foundation, a public charitable trust instituted by a group of middle-class individuals, is expanding its network of free state-of-the-art physiotherapy and pain management centers in India. The trust, which already operates one facility each in Kolkata, Lonavala, and Dehradun, is launched its first center in Mumbai. Located in the Jasudben M.L. School premises at Khar, the new center offers consultation and therapies at no cost to patients or their families. Inaugurated by Real Estate Developer, Ramesh Bijlani and his wife, this facility has been fully operational from Monday, November 18, 2019.
Shilpa Malhotra, Chairperson, Ceasefire Foundation, said these centers are aimed at helping people manage chronic pain ‘at absolutely no cost,’ irrespective of their social and economic status. “We started this initiative in October 2016, with our first physiotherapy and pain management center in Kolkata. We wanted to help people relieve their pain of any kind and provide a meaningful service to everyone. We believe that the best healthcare services need not come at a huge cost to the patients or their families. By offering free pain management services, we want to set an example for other like-minded people to take similar initiatives and further the cause. Our aim at the foundation is to ‘Serve as we would like to be served’ and all our efforts are directed towards living up to it.”
In the first phase, the Foundation is gearing to operate a total of 10 physiotherapy and pain management centers in the country within a period of 5 years.
“The space required for setting these centers are taken on long term lease. Each facility has 03 therapy rooms allowing 50 patients to comfortably avail therapies daily. We have standardised the look and feel for every unit that’s currently operational to ensure uniformity. Centers that will open in the future will also follow the same template. Investment in each facility varies from one location to another and funded through money raised from family and friends. In Mumbai, we are grateful to the Gujarat Research Society for offering us the space for free within their Jasudben M.L. School premises,” said Shilpa.
Pain resulting from an injury, a sport, work, travel, or for that matter an overstretched lifestyle, if not addressed appropriately, can lead to significant challenges to an individual’s physical well-being over time. The middle-aged and elderly are more prone to pain-related issues. However, children and millennials aren’t being spared either from the daily work and lifestyle challenges. This is mainly owing to negligible physical activities thanks to mobile gaming and binge-watching trend on handheld devices that are resulting in neck, wrist and finger pain in addition to other health issues.
As per estimates, approximately 40% of India’s working population is living with different types of pain issues. Of this, almost 50% are suffering from chronic pain that could lead to physical disability if not attended to or healed correctly. “However, finding a good physiotherapist and high costs – ranging from Rs. 300 to Rs. 1,500 per session continues to be a major concern. The latter is the key reason patients tend to discontinue physiotherapy when it gets prolonged thus forcing themselves to live a painful life. That’s the reason we decided to offer consultation and therapies free so that patients can relieve themselves of pain as well as the financial burden associated with it,” said Divya Marwah, Trustee, Ceasefire Foundation.
The four physiotherapy and pain management centers occupy real estate measuring 650 square feet (in Mumbai) and 1300 square feet in Lonavala to 2000 square feet (in Dehradun). On an average 50 patients avail free pain management services at each center daily
“While consultation and therapies are free of cost, we’ve ensured that the quality of services offered is comparable to the best. All the centers are operated by qualified, experienced, and highly skilled team of senior healthcare professionals comprising physiotherapists and homeopathy doctors,” adds Shilpa Malhotra.
Every facility features state-of-the-art equipment, and the highest standards of hygiene are maintained by well-trained housekeeping staff who ensure the premises are always spick-and-span. The Ceasefire Foundation has also identified like-minded people from known circles in the respective locations to oversee the day-to-day functioning of these centers that are also remotely monitored using a CCTV setup.
