When I was going to the Drug Addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre that day,I had it in mind to update the histories of some of the patients whose histories were not clear enough for me to really appreciate the extent of their problems.However,I was only able to take a full history of just one of the patients. The patient I interviewed was really lucid in his descriptions of the problems and gave graphic illustrations of the episodes which led to his admission.
Just as I finished taking my history in a rough form and set about organizing it and putting it on paper,one of the clinical psychologists came in and we set at talking about his psychological assessments of some of the patients with special emphasis on the patient that I just finished seeing.
From there, our discussions shifted to a number of other general issues as it relates to the poor state of mental health facilities in Nigeria especially the fact that there are just a few psychiatric hospitals and departments and very few rehabilitation centres as well. We drifted to a recent announcement made by the government of Plateau state closing down the Good Samaritan Rehabilitation home located at Sabo Gidan Kanan Road,Bukuru,Jos.The announcement said that the home was involved in unorthodox and dehumanizing practices in the management of the mentally ill in the center.
From what I gathered, the place is under the authority of the State Ministry of women affairs and social development but it seems to have lost the supervisory functions due to the neglect by successive governments. However the Jang administration seems to be looking into all the different sections of the society with a bid to improve the quality of life on the Plateau and as such this center came under searchlight.
According to unofficial reports, there are about 29 mentally ill people in the center being managed by someone who is neither a doctor, psychiatrist or Psychiatric nurse. One wonders how such came to be and what qualifications this fellow has to put him in this position. The caliber of people in that home are more or less vagrant psychotic people who may not have anywhere else to go. It is reported that many of them were taken off the street by this fellow at the report of the host community. The category of people in the home include chronic schizophrenics, drug addicts and other people who may not be able to even locate their homes if they are made to go home.
There was the idea that this fellow running the home, whoever he may be saw a need and set at providing such in the absence of government input. Given that he may not be the best qualified to be doing this, but in a situation where the relevant agencies that are responsible and elected leaders that have sworn to defend the constitution and provide for the overall welfare of her citizens fail in their duties, then anybody will do it.
The issue is not that action should not be taking to right the wrong going on in that place, but the question is ;what happens to the patients if that place is closed and alternate provision is not made for them. If some of them were picked from the street and they don’t know where to go, do we then send them back to the streets? Given that the facilities of JUTH is already overstretched in serving about 5-6 states, how then do we accommodate the patients from that home.
This may be an opportunity for the government to demonstrate her commitment to the overall health of the people, both physical and mental. It will really go a long way to help if the government retain the use of that place,re-staff it appropriately and maybe have an arrangement with the Psychiatry department of JUTH to send residents for at least a weekly evaluation of the patients pending a full employment of a psychiatrist if the need be. It must be noted that the Psychiatric hospital Uselu has a similar facility at Mile-18 of the Benin-Lagos express road and it is adequately covered from the main hospital.
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