The
National Assembly Member (NAM) standing committee on Health, Women, Children,
Disaster and Humanitarian Relief with the support of International Republican
Institute (IRI) recently conducted a public forum on Mental Health at Fajikunda
Health Centre.
The
day long Mental Health Forum was geared towards creating a platform targeting
the law enforcement agents, Ministry of Health, CSO communities as well the
National Assembly Members to discuss the issues regarding Mental Health and the
way forward in improving it.
Speaking
at the public forum, the National Assembly Member (NAM) for Banjul North, Hon.
Ousman Sillah said the reason behind the gathering was because the National
Assembly was approached by IRI to collaborate and two oversight committees were
identified which include the select committees on Health and Education.
“We
have engagements with the IRI to discuss how we are going to collaborate and we
identified numerous activities but one among them is holding a public forum” he
added.
Hon.
Sillah further stated that as a committee, they have a mandate to support in
the health sector since health has so many issues and they thought as a
committee that some of the issues can be done through regular engagements with
the Health Ministry.
“There
are many areas in the health sector but we deemed it necessary to focus the
public forum on mental health since according to the National Health Policy
2012, approximately 27,000 people in the Gambia are suffering from a severe
mental and/or substance abuse disorder which needs a great attention,” he
stressed.
Also
speaking at the public forum, Spt. Momodou D. Mballow of The Gambia Police
Force, Prosecution and Legal Affairs Unit said that it is the responsibility of
the police to interact with persons with both sound and unsound mind.
“It
is our responsibility to enforce all laws and regulations and when we arrest a
suspected lunatic it is our responsibility to prove that the person in custody
has committed that crime and it includes engaging the person in the
investigations,” he cited.
Spt.
Mballow noted that when the person is of unsound mind and is in their custody,
it is their responsibility to enforce what is stated in Section 260 Sub-section
4, quoting that “the state shall enable to facilitate equal access to clean and
safe water, adequate food and medical services”.
“When
a person commits a crime, it is our responsibility to investigate whether at
the time he was committing the crime he was in sound mind because there is a
defence for criminal lunatics.”
“After taking the suspected lunatic to the
psychiatric hospital for examination, we expect a feedback from the doctors
there to help us in the investigation,” he stated.
Sanjally
Kanyi, campaign manager, Latri Kunda Sabiji, said health should be a concern to
every individual be it a political party or even a religious group.
“My advice to the general public is to lend a
helping hand to the lunatics since they are part of the society and avoiding or
running away from them would not improve their mental health situation,” he
concluded.