By Charles Tjatindi
WINDHOEK
Due to the stigma associated with mental illness, mentally ill patients often find it difficult to return to society. For many years, psychiatric hospitals have been associated with dirty, dark, and clammy buildings where people are locked up behind bars and injected with drugs that reduce them to emotionless and blunted zombies.
This is the view of Dr Reinhardt Sieberhagen, one of only four qualified and registered psychiatrists in Namibia. Sieberhagen was speaking at an occasion held to celebrate 10 years of existence of the Okonguari Psychotherapeutic Centre, where he and other health professionals have been treating mentally ill patients.
Sieberhagen said mentally ill patients are faced with a myriad of challenges, ranging from lack of psychiatric centres and qualified personnel to cater for their needs, to lack of finances to pay for their treatment. He however noted that the greatest challenge facing mentally-ill patients are the negative perceptions attached to the illness, such as those suggesting that mentally ill patients are a threat to society.
“These perceptions hark from before the advent of proper drugs when virtually all patients with mental illness were institutionalised for months and even years. Fortunately, this is not the case today,” said Sieberhagen.
In a report published by the Canadian-based Psychiatric Bulletin, Anthony Feinstein, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, states that most cases of mental illness in Namibia could be attributed to events that had transpired in the pre-independence era.
The report noted that Namibians were united for a common purpose during that era – that of securing independence. When that was achieved, the report states, there were a lot of expectations from Namibians, many of whom believe there would be an immediate improvement in their respective standards of living.
“However, while apartheid has been defeated, its legacy was more enduring – social depravation, unemployment, inadequate housing, traumatised families, and missing relatives …,” writes Feinstein.
Currently, Namibia has only two psychiatric centres – one in Oshakati, and the other in the capital. Although both have state-funded psychiatric in-patient facilities, once discharged, patients normally receive no follow-up care until their next relapse. Treatment of psychosis is therefore largely reliant on sporadic use of depot antipsychotic medication.
According to Feinstein’s report, there are about 12 clinical psychologists, of whom only one operates in the State sector, adding to the woes of most Namibians, as only a handful can afford treatment at private practices.
Dr Sieberhagen therefore called on the development of formal community-based treatment models for mental illness.
“Mental illness costs billions in loss of productivity and man-hours on a global scale… the hidden losses are much more than the cost of treating these patients, and proper treatment is the only way in which this problem can be addressed,” said Sieberhagen.