Education on mental health needed

The Daily Graphic reported on Tuesday, February 20, that a man believed to be mentally challenged had reportedly killed four persons at Banda-Nkwanta in the Bole District in the Savannah Region. The victims of the alleged culprit included two children.

The mentally challenged man is said to have gone on an attacking spree with a machete on Sunday, February 18, when he was denied from using a washroom in a nearby house.

He initially stabbed one of the occupants in the back before fleeing. He continued on the rampage and forcibly entered another room where the two children were asleep and stabbed them.

Another man who was resting in his compound was also not spared.

The man further launched a violent attack on two police officers who arrived on the scene, forcing them to respond with gunshots and killing him in the process.

 The deceased have since been buried while the injured were receiving treatment at the Bole Government Hospital.

Indeed, but for the timely intervention of the police, it is certain that many more people would have fallen victim to the act of the rampaging man with the possibility of more injuries and loss of more lives.

As the Daily Graphic wishes the injured a speedy recovery and extends its condolences to the families of the deceased, one basic issue comes to mind— How citizens handle persons with mentally challenged conditions.

It is interesting that everybody seems concerned or afraid of the mentally challenged but nobody seems to care about how to handle them on the street and in our communities.

For sure, we do not think the rampaging man was new to the community.

 And by the description given, there was every indication that many of the people knew about his mental condition.

This incident is not the only one recorded recently.

 In August 2022, an unidentified man was also stoned to death by a suspected mentally challenged woman at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.

As a society, it is evident that our knowledge of how to handle mental health is woefully inadequate.

It is time that we embark on extensive education about this if we want to avoid such needless loss of lives.

One life lost is too many to close our eyes to.

As a precautionary measure, it is essential for the immediate family of mentally challenged persons to report any incidence or signs of the illness to professionals and to seek information and knowledge on how to handle the mentally challenged person in the family.

The Daily Graphic is not oblivious to the emotional distress that families that care for their members with severe mental illness associated with violence go through.

Family members perceive themselves to be at risk of violence.

They also have a more negative perception of their role as caregivers.

This situation results in many family members often abandoning the mentally challenged person.

 Unfortunately, this makes the victim of the disease feel isolated, a situation that tends to make their condition worse.

But we think that is when we must devote more time to the mentally ill person.

 Again as a country, we must place a lot of priority on the treatment and management of mental illness by ensuring adequate access to support for close family members to be able to care for their sick relatives.

We admit that assuming responsibility for a sick relative is no joke; it encompasses accompanying them to the hospital, ensuring that medication is taken and being very observant to call the hospital, among many other duties and responsibilities that require the family to assume almost complete responsibility for their relative, both socially and financially.

This is by no means taxing, and it is important that health facilities, mental health professionals and the entire community lend a hand to such families to lessen the burden to make it a bit easier to care for our friends who are unfortunately suffering from such conditions.

Where these are not available, the families may grow weary and abandon their unfortunate sick relatives and one of the results is what we heard recently at Banda-Nkwanta.

The victims of the recent attack may not be anyway related to the mentally challenged person. 

We must all therefore help in giving mentally challenged persons the attention they deserve.

Community leaders such as chiefs, assembly and unit committee members should lead the charge, for when and where the next violent attack by a mentally challenged person would come from and who the next victim cannot be predicted.