Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Medical workers at Juba Teaching hospital have called on the government and non-Governmental organizations to support the hospital’s psychiatrist department.
Speaking during the world Mental Health Day celebration which was organized by Zain Telecommunication Company under the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World”, Mr. Emmanuel Duku Philip a
psychologist in the hospital said that the psychiatrist department was one of the busiestdepartments functioning at Juba Teaching Hospital and therefore,it
required much support. “We are asking the government and the non-government organization to focus on psychiatrist department because the statistic shows more than one hundred of the patients are under adolescence
stage, age ranging from fifteen to twenty-four”, he said. He appealed to the government to open up a rehabilitation center for the patients to carry out some of their
activities. He further added that absence in some of those activities at times forced the hospital to refer some of its patients to stay in the prison.
The newly appointed Director General of the hospital, Dr. Fredrick Khamis Tawad however, asked the stake holders and the general public to take mental health issues as one of the first
priority in the country. “Mental health issue is not only for the sick people; it is not the responsibilities of the medical doctors and the psychiatrists alone but it is the responsibility of everyone to support it “he
said. Mrs. Agaat Henry Fardous, one of the recovered patients appreciated the medical doctors and the psychologists for their medical support during her mental health illness.
“In two thousand and fifteen, I was very sick, suffering from mental illness, I was knowing only my mother, my
father and my brothers but now I am fine and the way I behave with my friends have changed. Now I am a third-year medical student in Upper Nile university”, she said.
