By Yunus S Saliu
The rise in the number of mentally ill youth moving around the streets is now a great concern to every parent especially in the Greater Banjul Area. It is not only their unfriendly looks, shabby dresses or the hallucinations but because of the alarming rate of the ages involved.
The causes of mental illness is alleged to be common substance abuse as some of them might have in one way or the other abused drugs and alcohol.
What these people take sometimes is not limited to the popular ‘African grass’ widely known as marijuana as some of the youngsters have gone beyond that and got so addicted that they cannot control the use of them.
On a visit to Tanka Tanka Psychiatrist Hospital by The Fatu Network, Saffiatou Kinteh, Deputy Matron at the hospital disclosed that the number of both male and female that are mentally ill in our society is alarming because “every day you find one new mentally ill patient in the streets who needs attention.”
She explained that though psycho condition comes in different ways, a lot of factors can trigger the condition but five out of ten patients in the streets have abused drugs or alcohol for a while that could break them down immediately or letter.
More of these mentally ill youth are in the streets because they lack care and attention, at the initial stage they are hardly detected as they look clean, gentle and calm.
The matron added that lack of awareness about psychiatrist hospital also contributed to them being in the street hence it is the belief of some people that whoever is admitted in the psychiatrist home is a lunatic. And again, she explained further that, it is common among people to always take mentally ill patients to traditional healers to seek for treatment rather than taking them to psychiatrist hospitals.
Tanka Tanka Psychiatrist hospital is a referral hospital that admits mentally ill people free of charge once they have a referral from the main hospital – Edwards Francis Small Teaching Hospital.
Also, the capacity that the hospital can accommodate is limited but because of the alarming rate of the mentally ill people in society, the hospital sometimes goes beyond the actual number.
Saffiatou called on the government, NGOs and individuals to come to the aid of the hospital, the place needs more help especially in the area of maintenance, drugs, toiletries, security, clothes, food and other relevant things.
She added that it is difficult for the hospital to get assistance because of neglect saying she hopes and prays that the current government comes to their aid “because without assistance it will be difficult to handle the patients and we need different things to make the place conducive for both of us,” she disclosed.
