An official at the Tambura County Hospital in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State has raised an alarm over increased cases of mental health disorders in the area in the past year.
The Mental Health Officer at the hospital, Cosmos Alioni, told Radio Tamazuj that after an awareness campaign, they have been recording more and more cases daily.
He worries the current staff and services may not be sufficient for the increasing number of patients at the facility.
“From the first day, I came to the hospital, I had three patients, but now they have started to increase from seven and above per day, and yet that was on short notice which little sensitization,” he said. “As awareness goes on, we expect more patients per day maybe 20, 30, or 50 within the coming weeks.”
Cosmos supposes that the main cause of mental health disorders in his area is conflict and conflict-related suffering including displacement.
He called on the local population to seek medical help and shun traditional beliefs that mental illness is caused by witchcraft.
“People in the community around should not take it as a traditional thing or curse, or someone has been bewitched because of the wrong acts. No. Mental problems begin with psychological problems and as a result of being displaced, conflict, and so on, and they are taken under hard conditions, the person gets depressed.”
Cosmos assured the people to report any cases saying the hospital has services to address such cases.