Some residents have repeatedly expressed concern over the trend
Correspondence from Eastern Region
The sight of mental patients roaming the streets of every city, town, and community in Ghana remains a disturbing trend with apparently no action being taken to address the phenomenon.
Many of them; men, women, young and old, half or stark-naked wander endlessly with the numbers increasing with time. They can be seen begging for food from sellers, drinking from unhealthy sources, and eating from refuge dumps. They often carry large luggage full of rubbish.
Though mental illness according to experts can be genetic and could run in a family with history of mental illness and members have higher chances of catching the disease, it could also be triggered by the abuse of drugs especially cannabis, alcohol and perpetuated by various factors including discrimination, isolation, financial issues and some form of accidents.
Some residents have repeatedly expressed concern over the trend. GhanaWeb, therefore, spoke with some residents in the Eastern Region to analyze their opinions on the issue.
64-year-old Joseph Batsa, a driver expressed concern over the alarming rate of increase in the numbers of persons with psychiatric conditions wandering on the streets.
The presence of these persons, he maintained, posed danger either to themselves or society and called for swift government intervention as well as support from relatives as the former couldn’t do it alone.
“In my mind, I can say the government must support those people either by finding a place for them where they keep them so that they look after them until they become normal,” said the old fellow.
He recalled an incident where a madman without any provocation once shattered the windscreen of his vehicle which he had parked by the roadside with a stone.
Madam Maku, a farmer shared similar views. “I think the government should send them to Pantang (psychiatric hospital) to avoid loitering,” she answered when her opinion was sought on what she thought should be government’s response to the disturbing phenomenon. “While wandering, they may take something belonging to somebody who could attack them or they may attack the person.”
She urged relatives of such affected persons to seek treatment for the affected relatives.
For a student like Rosina, she could only ascribe the phenomenon to the effects of money rituals gone bad and family-related troubles.
Stressing on the dangers posed by mentally deranged persons towards the general public, the young woman recounted an incident where a madman attacked her with a stone on the streets without any provocation. She recalled: “On my way from school, one madman was coming right away…he took a stone and started chasing me.”
For her, relatives of victims of this condition are financially handicapped and not in a position to ensure proper care for them and therefore called on government to take urgent steps to address the situation.
Threat to society
Though many of them appear harmless, others could be extremely violent with some of them either inflicting wounds on or murdering persons. Reports have also been made about mad men raping women, sometimes in broad daylight.
Mental Health situation in Ghana
Mental health care remains an essential part of Ghana’s health delivery chain with the three mental health facilities Ankaful, Pantang, and Accra psychiatric hospitals being in very awful states and confronted with such challenges as inadequate drugs supply, feeding, and other logistical restraints for their care and thus making the delivery of such services very difficult for both patients and health practitioners.
This means the facilities are not in the best of shape to effectively discharge their responsibilities.
The responsibilities of family and relatives
Some relatives of mental patients feel embarrassed associating with their demented relatives. The result is that they abuse, discriminate against, and abandon them on the streets and to their fate.
They deny them care or send them to the psychiatric hospital for professional review.
The superstitious ones prefer sending them to churches and prayer camps where they end up being abused through starvation and assault in the name of healing.
Role of the psychiatric hospitals
Per Ghana’s mental health law, 2012, psychiatric hospitals have the power to arrest psychiatric patients from the streets in order to give them proper care which is also part of their mandate to clear them of the streets.
But is this mandate being executed? The answer is a big no.
The concerned residents are thus tasking government to ensure that mentally deranged persons are taken off the streets and given the treatment and care that they need and deserve.
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