Psychiatric hospitals need security

A Senior Nursing Officer at the Pantang Hospital, Mrs. Victoria Gbekle, says government must find a lasting solution to the security problems confronting the nation's psychiatric hospitals.

She said records show that every year, about a hundred mentally challenged persons escape from the hospitals unto the streets and cautioned that if the issue was not addressed in-time, Ghanaians might soon be fighting the nutty in the streets.

Mrs. Gbekle made this statement on Saturday when she received items valued at GH¢ 1000 presented by the Women's Missionary Union of the Redeemed Baptist Church, Ogbojo, to the in-patients of the Pantang Hospital near Accra.

The increase in the menace, she noted, was the result of the type of people that are admitted to the hospitals, and added that “those brought to the hospitals these days are mostly aggressive drug addicts who cannot live a day without drugs and thus turned violent to look for the drugs".

The Women's Missionary Union used the occasion to visit patients in the wards, prayed for them and preached to them. The president of the union, Mrs. Victoria Seiwah Opoku urged all stakeholders to come to the aid of those vulnerable people and support theml to live quality lives.

"It is by grace that we find ourselves in a better condition than these ones. We should not despise them but support them; make them happy and be proud that they are not left out in life especially, as we Christians, will soon celebrate Christmas."

Mrs. Opoku assured of the union's continuous support to the hospital to enable the patients to live a better life both physically and psychologically.