MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE IN UPPER WEST GET HELP (PAGE 20)

SEVERE mental illness has the tendency to alter one's life. People with such a disease experience a disturbing state of mind which makes it rather difficult for them to fit into society.
As a result, the mentally ill are often shunned by their relations and society at large. Some families may reject their own relatives thereby, abandoning them to their fate.
No wonder, in Ghana, just like any other African country, such people are found roaming the streets engaging in all kinds of activities.
In the Upper West Region, for instance, one person who has taken the challenge to support mentally-ill persons is Mr Elyassu Yusif Baba, the Managing Director of BAHASS Chemical and Herbal Centre based in Wa, the regional capital.
For some time now, Mr Baba, affectionately called BAHASS, has been supporting these people in various ways.
In collaboration with the mental unit of the Wa Regional Hospital, BAHASS has been shaving, bathing, clothing and feeding a number of those unfortuante people every fotnight.
According to him, the gesture is his widow’s mite towards the upkeep of the mentally ill.
“Mentally ill people have the right to treatment and care, but unfortunately, our society sees them as a nuisance who have brought shame to themselves,” he told the Daily Graphic in Wa.
“After feeding the mentally-ill people, the mental unit of the regional hospital also provides them with medicines,” he added.
On what motivated him to undertake this "risky" venture, BAHASS said he felt pity for a particular mentally-ill person who always drank water from a contaminated drain.
"Based on this, I was so moved that I decided to organise some boys to "arrest" him. Ironically, he never resisted and, therefore, we took him to the outstirts of Wa, where we shaved, bathed, clothed and fed him,” Mr Baba said.
“That was the beginning of the whole issue, and by the end of June, this year, we had supported 45 of such people,” he added.
Mr Baba was of the view that mental health was a development issue and should, therefore, not be viewed in isolation.
He, therefore, called on civil society to advocate or lobby the government and civil society to pay more attention to the plight of the mentally-ill.