At your own risk: The insanity of ignoring the mentally challenged

The law requires mentally unsound people to be treated in asylums.

RAWALPINDI:

On the busy streets of the garrison city, they cross roads without looking left or right. They are unkempt and scare people away.

Once they had names, now they are just referred to as the mad men. And while people notice them, society does not seem equipped or prepared to care for mentally challenged people.

“These mentally sick people do not enjoy family support, nor do they get help from any organisation. Those who have the mandate to facilitate care are not cognizant of their duty,” said Fakhir Ali, a corporate manager.



Mentally challenged people could prove to be a threat to not just their own well-being but also other people if left unattended. “I wonder why they are not sent to the asylum.

Every day I see a young boy who has lost control of his mental faculties, walking around in my locality.

Hot summers and chilly winters don’t stop him from wandering in the streets,” said Sakhawat Hussain, a college lecturer from Fazal Town.

“Perhaps, his family members have disowned him,” speculating on whether the boy had received psychiatric treatment ever or whether his family was too ignorant to know what to do.

“I recently saw a guy from Railway Colony, Loi Bher, making odd gestures that reflected his mental illness. But on other occasions, he is seen well-dressed that it becomes very difficult to judge if he is mentally unstable,” said Shafqat Abbas, who lives there.



Expressing his concern, Abbas stated, “Why are the rights of mentally ill patients ignored? Knowing that they are not in a position to make decisions for themselves and do not realise the results of their actions, why are they left to wander on the streets?”

“Mentally unsound people have very little insight into their condition,” said Anum Ali, a psychiatrist. “Their condition keeps on deteriorating with the passage of time. I think even when they are under treatment, they are not given medication regularly,” added Ali.

“Some parents, due to lack of knowledge about the illness of their children, pull them out of asylums. In such cases, there is always a risk that a person with chronic psychotic illness may try to harm others if permitted to leave the asylum.

This was the case of a young man from Tajabad, who was made to marry a poor ill-fated girl because of the flawed thinking of his parents. They were hoping he would become normal once he got married.

He now has a child and has been sent back to the asylum after complaints by neighbours,” said Afsar Ali, a trader, whose wife was once intimidated by this mentally unsound man.

“When a person suffers from chronic psychotic illness, he must be sent to an asylum and given treatment. This is what the law also says,” said Dr Shahid Hussain.

However, in the doctor’s experience, this law is hardly ever acted upon.

“I have often seen a mentally unstable middle-aged man in shalwar kameez wandering on the Airport Link Road with a cigarette in his hand. His eerie looks scare off many schoolchildren.

Should such patients, perhaps suffering from delusion, hallucination or extreme paranoia, be allowed to roam freely on the streets?” questioned Zainab Ali, a worried mother of two children, who she accompanies daily on their walk to school from Dhoke Hafiz.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2013.