Protect the sexual reproductive rights of mentally ill patients

Mr Salifu Issifu Kanton, the Executive Director of the Community Development Alliance (CDA), has advocated the protection of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Right (SRHR) of mentally ill persons in the society from abuse.

He said mentally ill people suffer various forms of abuse including sexual abuse, which exposed them to the risk of contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) such as HIV/AIDS.

Mr Kanton, who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa on Monday, said that some of the mentally ill patients who suffered sexual abuse also get pregnant compounding their already existing problem of mental illness.

“Their Sexual and Reproductive Health Right issues have not been properly looked at, it looks like they are excluded because of their state of health, our society does not place premium on their SRHR.

“So the whole situation looks very dire, very disorganized, undignified, every human being has the right to dignity including mentally ill patients”, he said.

Mr Knaton said mentally ill people were seen in the society carrying babies, and that such people could not properly play the parental role of caring for a child and thus risking the lives of such children.

He said several mentally ill people could not consent to sex and were thus raped and impregnated against their interest and consent.

“It is my view that severely mentally ill people cannot consent to sex, so when they are found pregnant, it means that there are people who have made it their habit to be raping and impregnating mentally ill people and that for me is a serious crime”, he added.

He observed that some people who had sex with mentally ill people did that for spiritual purposes with the hope of ‘becoming rich’.

Mr Kanton emphasized the need for sufficient safeguards to ensure that mentally ill people’s rights including their SRHR were protected.

On his part, Mr Dominic Wunigura, the Programmes Coordinator for the Centre for People’s Empowerment and Rights Initiative (CPRI), said mentally ill people have the right to seek any form of contraceptive method as part of his or her SRHR right.

He said they also have the right to sex and to produce children and that all those rights needed to be respected.

Mr Wunigura told the GNA that in as much as mentally ill people had the right to sex, the Mental Health Act protected their rights and that it was criminal to have sex with a mentally ill person without his or her consent.

“All those rights are supposed to be protected. What we wish for is that the system should find a way to educate these people, especially about their sexuality and their reproduction so that the services that are required are given to them”, he said.

Mr Wunigural said the rights of mentally ill patients were abused in different ways including sexual abuse, chaining them, and subjecting them to inhumane and degrading treatment against their personal dignity.