Malawi Government urged to increase mental hospitals

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St John of God- Mzuzu

Malawian based mental health experts at Saint John of God in Mzuzu have urged government and some stakeholders consider having a mental hospital at each district citing scores of people are getting mad day in day out due to diverse causes in the country.

This comes in agreement with Malawi24 investigation which indicates that since independence only three (Mzuzu, Zomba and Lilongwe) mental hospitals have been operational in the whole country.

Furthermore, according to records this publication accessed at Saint John of God mental hospital in Mzuzu, only less than 20 mental health experts are holding up the whole country.

St John of God- MzuzuPsychologist at the hospital, Mdumanene Silungwe confessed that inadequate facilities offering mental health services in the country is a very serious stumbling block to their profession.

Silungwe maintained that will the rapid growing number of people who are getting mental illnesses the three available hospitals deserve to be referrals so that they ease their work.

“There should be district mental hospitals and the available ones must be referrals because the current state of affairs suggests that many people will be getting mad. So only these will not withstand the pressure,” said Silungwe.

He went on to elucidate that these days many people are getting mad because of smoking cannabis and some personal anxieties apart from stress due to the realities they face in the society.

Therefore he also urged government and all concerned parties to prioritize training more mental health experts to suit the current status call.

“It’s indeed accurate that the whole Malawi we are only less than 20 or even 10 if not mistaken. This makes our work challenging because we meet a lot of people this time,” added Silungwe.

Efforts to get comment from the ministry of health publicist Adrian Chikumbe on the concern proved futile because before publishing this article, he claimed to be in attendance to be in a meeting.