Sangath has been involved in a variety of aspects of child development since its inception in 1997. We started off as a multi-disciplinary child guidance clinic with a range of clinicians, inlcuding a pediatrician, speech therapist, physiotherapist, psychiatrist, psychologist and special educators.
However, we found a rather alarming rate of attrition as parents stopped bringing their children back to the clinic after a few sessions. This set up thinking about shifting our work into the community, closer to people's homes. Simultaneously, our research in child development was often linked to adult health research programmes, for example, the effect of maternal depression on a child's development in its first year after birth.
A key component of our work was with families with children with a disability and, for a while, we also ran a special pre-school. Currently, our work involves clinical services for children with developmental and mental health problems, and working with parents to help deliver treatments for children with autism.
