Mr Ceesay,
No disrespect to you, the good doctor/nurse or the point newspaper, but I
can’t help but ask if a scientific study had been carried out
which brought the doctor to this conclusion. I hope this is not something he
thinks he knows authoritatively just by the mere fact of his work?

I think the stats is pretty high, and the chance of any country having 60%
of its people
plagued by mental illness, is quite extraordinary to say the least.

I know sometimes we have the knack of exaggerating things as Gambians, but
if he came to
this conclusion after a scientific research, then I apologise in advance,
until then, I think, this is just too
generalised and over sweeping. I have to say too, that the point newspaper
should have asked the doctor this
very questions, and if possible verify them by means of scientific research
documents, before going ahead to print this.

I hope to god that he/they are completely wrong, for god forbid if they aren
’t, then we are in serious trouble.

Good night

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of pa ali ceesay
Sent: 11 December 2001 00:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: GAMBIA 60% MENTAL DISORDER

fwd:point
''60 percent Gambians have mental or behavioural disorder''
The number of psychiatric cases is on the increase in The Gambia according
to a career psychiatric nurse at the Campama Psychiatric Unit. Basing his
assertions on a hypothesis from the community mental health team Pa Bakary
Sonko claimed that mental or behavioural cases among Gambians have increased
to about sixty percent over the last couple of years.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent at the Campama Psychiatric
unit, the career psychiatric nurse said the mental health situation of
Gambians gauged from a broad spectrum shows that it is not only people who
have vigrant or psychiatric disorder in the streets who fall into the
bracket.
He said it also include a good number of Gambians who are otherwise seen as
normal persons bearing traces of behavioural disorders. He further noted
that even the remaining 40 percent without mental disorder are characterized
by people with relative neurotic disorder.
In this vein he argued that in relation to pathological disorder, people
diagnosed with mental illnesses have mania depression, and anxiety disorder.
He observed that over a considerable amount of time people with physical
symptom of mental disorder and behavioral problems visit mental health
clinics or general OPD medical clinics.
He said such people talk to themselves in the streets while others are
afflicted with forgetfulness by way of misplacing things without remembering
where they had placed them. On the many causative factors he said the
exposure of people to harmful substances like alcohol, cannabis, heroin and
the lack of jobs compounded by socio economic and political uncertainties
are mainly responsible for post-traumatic stress disorders among many
Gambians.
He also observed that people with family and employment problems are
rendered emotionally unsettled accounting for a socio cultural factor. Sonko
also referred to the culture of silence attending the situation because of
the danger of losing one’s job or being ostracized from society should one
report his problem.
He also said that there is also an accompanying sense of insecurity among
people who cannot take family responsibility or help relatives amidst social
and political changes in which some people are killed or imprisoned. He said
people who are affected directly or indirectly are normally left traumatised
by the experience. He suggested that anger, frustration, and other related
emotional distress could be pent-up to render a given individual as a human
volcano of emotions.

 comment :
may the spirit of the ancestors preserve, protect and give you and your
workmates more strenght to carry on your work professionally in the
tradition of dr franz fannon and dr  wesling.
we must thank the ancestors for surviving so long after centuries of
accumulated local and foreign oppression .hope this report will be given the
serious study it deserves as a further testimony to the urgency of the
problem
arresting the further decline into the depths of mental and behavourial
disorders increasingly being manifested in all aspects social life is the
responsibility of all of us concerned Liberating our oppressed people from
the local and foreign oppressors will be a major step in the right direction
of MENTAL HEALTH




  _____

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