Prosper Kudzanai Mushauri.

BSSC Psychology and BSSC Special Honours Psychology.

Ngomahuru psychiatric institution a de facto penitentiary centre: A non biased report. ‘Deep inside of us we all yearn for freedom’

Members of every society and social class experience symptoms of mental distress”-(Christens B.D 2012)

Psychiatric hospitals are hospitals which specialize in treatment of serious psychiatric diseases. Patients are often admitted on voluntary basis, both people whom psychiatrists believe may pose a significant danger to themselves or others may be subject to involuntary commitment (New York Times 1 June 1995).

The class visit to Ngomahuru psychiatric institution on the date of 23 August 2016 informed us of the dilemmas of mental institutions in Zimbabwe, which depict a neglected state reflecting more of a penal center than a mental rehabilitation institution. Ngomahuru mental rehabilitation center is located approximately 45km south of Masvingo city and further 13km from the main highway thus the Masvingo- Beigtbridge highway. This implies that the mental rehab is far away. From service centers which are offered by the city and just like Mutimurefi and Chikurubi maximum penal institutions it is located far away from interaction with other services and human life or even worse off than them. It is its location which makes it even more complicated for relatives of mentally challenged people to visit them as there is no easily available transport to get there and when found it is expensive as it includes a long distance out of Masvingo city and a part of 13km dust road from the highway road to Ngomahuru psychiatric institution, finding transport back after the visit is a challenge. Hence such an unease way of travelling to Ngomahuru makes it more like a penal center.

Ngomahuru psychiatric institution is a colonial era rehabilitation center which was first used as a leprosy center for quarantine purposes, later used as a tuberculosis center TB and then turned into a mental institution during the colonial era. The buildings do not have proper plan of a mental rehabilitation institution, though it is referred as the second largest mental referral institution after Ingutsheni in Bulawayo. The buildings were not built for mental rehabilitation purposes but to lock up people for quarantine purposes as it was built as a leprosy plan for quarantine purposes. The plan of the structure of locking up patients is clearly seen on the site of Villa two and Villa three psychiatric wards, hence with these structures still in place and intact Ngomahuru is more like a penal system than a psychiatric institution.

Insufficiently staffed Ngomahuru psychiatric institution is operating without a certified psychologist and psychiatrist. Hence there is likelihood that iatrogenic injury results from such a setup, as professionals currently present are not qualified to handle and diagnose the mental health cases which are brought to their attention on Zimbabwe’s second largest mental referral psychiatric institution. It is this state of things that one is tempted that it’s a serious case of malpractice by health directors to operate a psychiatric institution without the prerequisite human resource. In this glowing light it is explicit that the modus operandi which is being used at Ngomahuru is reflective of a penal institution.

Lack of resources has also blighted efforts at the institution with it operating without (psychotropic) drugs, food, toiletries, and sanitary ware for females. The lack of these basics puts both life of health providers and mental health clients in jeopardy. Nqobile Tshili a Chronicle reporter on 24 August reported that three nurses at Ingutsheni had been attacked by patients as there are no psychotropic drugs to stabilize them and that the hospital had only 10% of the drugs required. In Limpopo province in Thohoyandou as reported in News24 15 April 2016 a mental patient attacked and killed a nurse at Hayani psychiatric hospital. In a recent report by the Chronicle cited by My Zimbabwe News on October 2 2016 officials at Ngomahuru Central Hospital say that shortage of drugs has resulted in unsustainable cases of outpatients relapsing and needing re-admission to the crowded institution. Hence the lack of these basics puts mental health workers at risk and also the patients as they suffer from unplanned termination of medication which risk relapse of their condition. Ingutsheni Hospital Chief Executive Officer quoted in Chronicle of 24 August 2016 stated that due to shortage of drugs, mental patients become aggressive and abuse nurses. Lack of psychotropic medications combined with food shortages, sanitary ware, toiletries among a host of shortages at the institution portrays it more as a penal institution built for retribution purposes.

At the time of our visit Ngomahuru had no electricity and water. Hence the lack of urgency to get such basics like water, available to one of the largest mental hospital shows how neglected the mental re habilitation center is. The patients were clad in semi-clean hospital grabs, torn and some over sworn on top of this shortage an electric generator had no diesel to power it up which shows an abhorred state of negligence by health ministry in Zimbabwe there by making it a de facto penal institution.

The institution was over crowded. The number of psychiatric patients far surpasses the threshold capacity of the mental institution. This is due to stigma issues attributed to mental illness as relatives of patient sort of ‘dump’ patients and never to come back to check progress of client-relative. There is lack of entertainment and client spend most of the day roaming in their fenced areas gazing the sun, watching the birds passing by and hearing their sounds.

Villa three section which houses the mentally retarded, do not administer psychometric tests. Probable reasons being the non-availability of a professional qualified to administer the tests such as a psychologist and also the absence of such tests at the institution. Hence clients are locked up with no progress check or psychological training to improve their condition. Hence this locking up without treatment makes the process at Ingutsheni inhuman and worse than a prison.

Mental clients who have stayed there for more than three decades thus before, black rule in Zimbabwe. Hence it is synonymous to life imprisonment when one spends more than three decades in a psychiatric institution or even worse because it might tend to be longer as one does not have a time frame as in penal service, when one is going to walkout.

It is my sincere wish and a psychological conviction that the mental institution be temporarily closed pending rehabilitation of the buildings to meet standard psychiatric institution renovations, resourcing it with the basic psychotropic drugs, psychological tests, food, sanitary ware and appoint properly qualified personnel in mental health issues. It is inhuman to incarcerate mental health clients when no help is given or be unable to give them help because of various challenges but continue to incarcerate them without treatment.

Disclaimer: this is an academic report, any action direct or indirect done based on this report will not cause the author to indemnify the user and in any case the author of this report shall remain harmless of any injuries caused.

The report has only been submitted as an academic tool.

Reference

Christens B.D (2012). Targeting empowerment in community development: a community psychology approach to enhancing power and wellbeing. Oxford University Press and community development journal.

Chronicle (2016) GWERU man murders own mother and axes 2 women www.myzimbabwe.co.zw/…8651-gweru

Correspondent (2016) 15 April m.news24.com/…/mental- patient-kills-…

Nqobile Tshili (2016) JUST IN: Three nurses attacked by mental patients at Ingutsheni 24 August www.chronicle.co.zw.just-in-three- nurses…

New York Times (1995) 1 June “White House Intruder Put in Mental Ward”