The Mental Health Act 2012 imposes a collective responsibility on all citizens in respect of taking care of persons with mental disorders. Section 73. (1) of the Act States “A police officer may remove a person to a facility or mental health facility for assessment under a certificate of urgency if that person is found in a public place appearing to be suffering from mental disorder and is highly aggressive or showing out-of-control behaviour and appears to require immediate care, control and treatment.”
Section 73 (2) did not leave the duty of responsibility only in the hands of police officers or duty bearers but also the families of the affected persons.
It states ‘Family members, care givers, health professionals, social welfare officers and any other citizens may seek the assistance of the police to take a person to a facility or mental health facility under a certificate of urgency in a situation where that person in a public place is highly aggressive.”
It is however sad that persons with mental illness still roam the streets without the implementation of these laws.
In August, a young man was stoned to death by a mentally challenged woman at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
In a video circulating on social media, the unknown man was seen lying in a pool of blood with a large stone near his right hand.
According to eye witnesses, the deceased was a pillion rider on a moving ‘Okada’ on one of the interchange levels when the woman struck him.
The eyewitness said when the victim fell off the motorbike, the woman pounced on him and attacked him with the large stone.
As usual, the story enjoyed the headlines and panel discussions without taking any cue from the incident with no pragmatic action to avert future occurrence.
On Monday, a staff of the National Ambulance Service in the Bole District, one Mahama Imoro Luckey has alao bewm killed by a mentally challenged person in Bole in a similar style.
Mahama is alleged to have been hit on the head with a block by his assailant around the Bole LA Primary School at Mempeaeem a Suburb of Bole.
Imoro was believed to be making a call around the school where the suspect sleeps and upon reaching the direction of the suspect, he allegedly hit his head with the block and fled the scene.
A passerby saw Imoro lying in a pool of blood and immediately raised an alarm.
He was rushed to the Bole District Hospital but was confirmed dead on arrival.
The GHANAIAN PUBLISHER is left to wonder why the upsurge of these freak deaths occasioned by mentally ill persons especially on budding youths.
The paper is of the view that in as much as the psychiatric hospitals are constrained in executing their mandate, we believe such aggressive and dangerous ‘mad’ persons must be removed from the public space irrespective of the cost.
The valuable lives that are being lost are far more expensive than the cost involved in removing them.
Interestingly, Section 4 of the Act also says “a District Assembly is responsible for the well-being of persons with mental disorders found in public places in the district.”
Most instructively, section 5 indicates that “A District Assembly shall liaise with the police, social welfare and health authorities to remove persons with mental disorder who are a danger to themselves or to others and found in public places.
We think these deaths must be a source of concern to the right authorities to act in the interest of the public in whose behalf they act.