‘No more flogging, chaining of mental patients in Ondo’

WORRIED by the inhuman treatment meted to psychiatric patients by their handlers across the country, the practice of flogging and chaining them   have been outlawed in the Ondo State psychiatrist hospitals. Also, forcing the patients to undergo fasting by religious leaders under the guise of casting demons out of them has been criticized. A psychiatrist consultant at the Neuropsychiatric Specialists Hospital, Akure, Dr Akinnuoye Akinwunmi, told Sunday Vanguard that the dignity of mentally deficient patients should henceforth be respected.
Akinwunmi, who spoke during this year’s mental day celebration, held under   the theme, “Dignity in mental health”, lamented that people with mental health problems are among the most socially excluded and abused group in the society. “Respecting an individual’s identity and protecting this dignity will help to promote recovery. The act that violates dignity and fails to respect individuals can lead to further damage. You feel good or better in yourself when people treat you with kindness and compassion”, he stated. On the roles and services of medical social workers  in promoting dignity in mental health, he said mentally challenged clients should be treated with respect while disrespecting should be avoided during consultation.


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