Drugged instead of counselled
There are claims that the Oshakati hospital administers psychiatric drugs instead of referring patients for psychological counselling.
A social worker claims that 130 inpatients and 400 outpatients at the Oshakati hospital's psychiatric unit are being given psychiatric drugs with serious side-effects without proper psychiatric evaluation.
The social worker, who spoke to Namibian Sun earlier this week, said all those who have been diagnosed as mentally ill by the Oshakati intermediate hospital should approach the Health Professions Councils of Namibia to review their assessments, because they were not done procedurally.
Since independence, the hospital has been operating without a psychologist and it has only one psychiatrist.
Overflowing
The psychiatric department treats over 500 patients weekly and all patients that require counselling are referred to social workers.
The hospital's acting medical superintendent, Dr Korbinian Vizcaya Amutenya, confirmed to Namibian Sun that the hospital has no psychologist or dietitian.
Amutenya suspects this is because of the unattractive packages offered at state hospitals in comparison with private practice.
“This problem is not only in the psychiatric ward, but it is in the whole hospital. I was medical superintendent of this hospital from 1998 up to 2005 and there was no psychologist.
I went away for more than ten years and came back to act as a medical superintendent and still there is no psychologist,” Amutenya said.
Some patients at the hospital told Namibian Sun that they were given psychiatric drugs without any psychiatric evaluation.
The hospital has only one psychiatrist, the head of the unit, who attends to 130 inpatients, plus 400 outpatients a week.
“We have a psychiatrist who is more educated than a psychologist and we depend on him. If there are claims of such nature they need to be looked at individually,” Amutenya said.
'Not attractive'
Amutenya said the remuneration packages for psychologists in the public sector do not attract qualified people.
“Posts are there and they have been advertised since forever, but nobody is applying. We have many dietitians and psychologists in the country but they are not applying. Why are they not applying if the packages are good? These packages need to be made attractive otherwise we will not get any interested applicants,” he said.
The head of the unit, Dr Famuyiwa Peter, joined the hospital in December 2015 after he had been trained in Nigeria, the country of his birth.
The scope of a psychologist's work is to offer psychotherapy and counselling. A psychiatrist, on the other hand, is a medical specialist who diagnoses mental illnesses and treats these with medication or refers the patient to a social worker, psychologist or occupational therapist.
Amutenya said the number of patients treated at the hospital's Ward 16 had increased, especially the number of female patients.
“The number of female patients always used to be at 30% while the males were at 70%, but these days the number of female patients has increased to 50%. I do not know the reason why.
“The majority of the patients are young people of a productive age group and I suspect there is an increase in the use of illegal drugs and substances and also lack of proper support in families,” he said.
The social worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, describes the hospital's psychiatric ward as “hell”.
She says it has “ruined hundreds of people” who were declared mentally ill and their condition has not improved with treatment.
“We know that hundreds of people have been declared mentally unfit at this hospital, but their problems were not serious. The majority of these people were just challenged by social issues and only needed proper counselling, but after they were taken to the hospital they were given psychiatric drugs until their situation got worse and they were declared mentally unfit.
“Some of these people are actually fine individuals, but they are declared mentally unfit, making them vulnerable,” the social worker said.
Four patients, who did not want to be identified, claimed to have fallen victim to this practice.
They said they ended up on psychiatric medication although they only had personal problems.
They claimed that they were given injections of psychiatric drugs upon their arrival at the hospital for the first time, without any evaluation performed by a medical professional.
ILENI NANDJATO
The social worker, who spoke to Namibian Sun earlier this week, said all those who have been diagnosed as mentally ill by the Oshakati intermediate hospital should approach the Health Professions Councils of Namibia to review their assessments, because they were not done procedurally.
Since independence, the hospital has been operating without a psychologist and it has only one psychiatrist.
Overflowing
The psychiatric department treats over 500 patients weekly and all patients that require counselling are referred to social workers.
The hospital's acting medical superintendent, Dr Korbinian Vizcaya Amutenya, confirmed to Namibian Sun that the hospital has no psychologist or dietitian.
Amutenya suspects this is because of the unattractive packages offered at state hospitals in comparison with private practice.
“This problem is not only in the psychiatric ward, but it is in the whole hospital. I was medical superintendent of this hospital from 1998 up to 2005 and there was no psychologist.
I went away for more than ten years and came back to act as a medical superintendent and still there is no psychologist,” Amutenya said.
Some patients at the hospital told Namibian Sun that they were given psychiatric drugs without any psychiatric evaluation.
The hospital has only one psychiatrist, the head of the unit, who attends to 130 inpatients, plus 400 outpatients a week.
“We have a psychiatrist who is more educated than a psychologist and we depend on him. If there are claims of such nature they need to be looked at individually,” Amutenya said.
'Not attractive'
Amutenya said the remuneration packages for psychologists in the public sector do not attract qualified people.
“Posts are there and they have been advertised since forever, but nobody is applying. We have many dietitians and psychologists in the country but they are not applying. Why are they not applying if the packages are good? These packages need to be made attractive otherwise we will not get any interested applicants,” he said.
The head of the unit, Dr Famuyiwa Peter, joined the hospital in December 2015 after he had been trained in Nigeria, the country of his birth.
The scope of a psychologist's work is to offer psychotherapy and counselling. A psychiatrist, on the other hand, is a medical specialist who diagnoses mental illnesses and treats these with medication or refers the patient to a social worker, psychologist or occupational therapist.
Amutenya said the number of patients treated at the hospital's Ward 16 had increased, especially the number of female patients.
“The number of female patients always used to be at 30% while the males were at 70%, but these days the number of female patients has increased to 50%. I do not know the reason why.
“The majority of the patients are young people of a productive age group and I suspect there is an increase in the use of illegal drugs and substances and also lack of proper support in families,” he said.
The social worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, describes the hospital's psychiatric ward as “hell”.
She says it has “ruined hundreds of people” who were declared mentally ill and their condition has not improved with treatment.
“We know that hundreds of people have been declared mentally unfit at this hospital, but their problems were not serious. The majority of these people were just challenged by social issues and only needed proper counselling, but after they were taken to the hospital they were given psychiatric drugs until their situation got worse and they were declared mentally unfit.
“Some of these people are actually fine individuals, but they are declared mentally unfit, making them vulnerable,” the social worker said.
Four patients, who did not want to be identified, claimed to have fallen victim to this practice.
They said they ended up on psychiatric medication although they only had personal problems.
They claimed that they were given injections of psychiatric drugs upon their arrival at the hospital for the first time, without any evaluation performed by a medical professional.
ILENI NANDJATO
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