Psychiatric home crisis: Staff taming patients with brooms

The skeletal staff left at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital are taming the aggressive patients with brooms, Starr News’ Daniel Nii Larety has reported from the facility.

“The place looks calm and deserted. The few workers who are here now are scaring the patients away with brooms to reduce the violence. The patients are now out and begging for money on the streets,” Lartey told Nii Arday Clegg on the Morning Starr Tuesday.

The Accra Psychiatric Hospital has been battling a plethora of such as the absence of funds and medical supply for some months now.

The facility has subsequently started releasing the patients due to the lack of logistics to cater for them.

Last month, the medical staff declared an indefinite strike over what they said were the unsafe environment working environment and the lack of critical tools to work with.

Meanwhile, President John Mahama has said although he is aware of the challenges facing the facility, the recent strike by the staff has not yet come to his attention.

“It hasn’t come to my attention, but I do know that the area of mental health is one of the areas where we need to focus our attention [because] our Psychiatrists tell us that all of us have a bit of madness in us and that somehow we all have some mental disorder or the other so it means that it is something that we need to pay attention to.

“We will take immediate steps to resolve the issue at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and I am going to call the Minister of Health after this programme to see what the issues are and how we will resolve them,” he told Sunrise radio in an interview.