Mental patients deserve care – Mental Health advocate

Mental health advocate Doris Appiah-Danquah has condemned society’s disposition toward mental patients, saying neglect worsens their condition.

Appiah-Danquah who herself has recovered from severe Bipolar disorder after several years of struggling with the condition advised against camping patients in faith-based facilities for healing.

Speaking on the Morning Starr with host Kafui Dey Thursday, Appiah-Danquah said faith-based centers abuse patients and exploit their families in the name of healing them.

“My condition as a bipolar disorder patient exposed me to many horrible things…I was sent to prayer centers, and fetish homes after my time in the psychiatric hospital failed to cure me. I must say these faith-based centers do nothing but worsen your condition.”

She recalled “at one time, at one of the prayer camps, they stripped me to my pants in front of the whole church and splashed me with water because I challenged the pastor’s doctrine. My father was there that day”.

Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, is a mental illness that brings severe high and low moods and changes in sleep, energy, thinking, and behavior according to medical reports.

People who have bipolar disorder can have periods in which they feel overly happy and energized and other periods of feeling very sad, hopeless, and sluggish. In between those periods, they usually feel normal.

Appiah-Dankwa who had to drop out of medical school as a result of the condition confessed to having all these symptoms.

A Human Rights Watch report stated “Ghana’s three public psychiatric hospitals are understaffed and unhygienic.

This has encouraged many caregivers to take patients to the alternative faith-based centers that promise total healing.

Appiah-Danquah however said if society were more supportive and educated on mental health conditions, patients would find better care in their immediate environment

“If you look at the burden of sicknesses, it is the sickness with the greatest burden and we turn to ignore and sideline it and that’s why more and more people are walking our streets as they are.”