A doctor’s place is in the community, says Dr. Sivakumar, who believes his services should not be confined to the ‘four walls’ of hospitals or clinics. A psychiatrist by profession, Dr. Siva also finds the time to serve with Intan Life Zone, as helping people is an integral part of his life.
Intan Life Zone is an NGO working in the field of ‘Harm Reduction’. As its name suggests, Harm Reduction is a set of practical strategies and methods designed to reduce the negative consequences associated with various human behaviours. Through this foundation, Dr. Siva works with people living with HIV and AIDS, people using and injecting drugs, members of the LGBT community, and sex workers.
It gives him a sense of fulfillment to work with people in marginalised communities. Dr. Siva believes everybody shares a common goal towards wellness. His interest and fascination with human behaviour and reasoning plays a key role in his work. Dr. Siva admits that he once struggled to ‘draw a line’ between his community service, academician life in Monash, medical practice, and university administrative work. Then one day, a wise man told him to stop drawing lines and merge the services. Those words helped him see the bigger, fuller picture of his place in the community.
“Retirement is a word that does not exist in my vocabulary,” Dr. Siva jokes. He wants to continue helping people to the best of his ability. If he could collect more funds, he would like to set up a drop-in centre for people with mental health or drug problems. He wants it to be an inclusive place where people from marginalised communities could come for help, get basic medical care, support, or just a friendly smile to relieve burdens off their shoulders.
He is happy to be working with motivated and enthusiastic people to carry out these charitable works.
