A man has spent 20 years at Zomba Mental Hospital long after being cured because he cannot trace his home.

The man, who came to the hospital as an eight-year-old mental patient is now a permanent resident of the facility.

From the car park of Zomba Mental Hospital, you could see him sitting on the veranda of the facility’s maize mill, basking in the sun.

Then he wobbly walks back and disappears into the fence of the facility. This man is a typical example of cases of dumped mental health patients whose number has reached 50.

“You journalists have a role to play. That man you saw came here at the age of eight. He is now 28. He cannot locate his home,” a nurse, accompanied by a colleague, told Nation on Sunday on August 19 2022.

Outside Zomba Mental Hospital where four patients died

The nurse said: “This young man mentions Malingunde, in Lilongwe as his home, but changes and mentions another place. We have been to Malingunde, but we could not trace his home.We just keep him here because his home is not traceable.”

Added nother that a day before Nation On Sunday’s visit to Zomba Mental, the hospital officials reunited a lady with her relatives in Milepa, Chiradzulu, after a period of 20 years.

Zomba Mental Hospital spokesperson Harry Kawiya, who is principal psychiatric clinical officer at the hospital, confirmed the two incidents in an exclusive interview at the hospital.

Kawiya agreed that it was important for families to be checking with the facility when their relatives go missing because some of the cases are brought to the hospital by

Malawi Police Service.

“We have some clients that were brought here by their families, but as time passes, they abandon them here or choose for them that they remain here even after responding positively to the treatment,” he said.

Kawiya said dumping of patients at their facility is inhumane and must be discouraged.

“Psychiatric condition is like any other illness, it can happen to anyone. Our mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act,” Kawiya said.

He said government funding towards mental health services is not adequate, adding with closure of Bwaila Mental Unit under Kamuzu Central Hospital, Zomba Mental Hospital was under extreme pressure to accommodate clients from across the nation.

Kawiya said despite each district hospital being expected to have a mental unit, referrals are still made to Zomba Central Hospital; hence the pressure.

Principal nursing officer at Zomba Mental Hospital Rachael Champiti told a visiting St. James Church Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) on August 13 2022 that the number of discharged patients stranded at the facility because their guardians or relatives could not pick them stands at 50.

She said every discharged patient is released only when they have a guardian to take them home.

Health and human rights activist Maziko Matemba bemoaned the tendency of some families to dump their relations at mental facilities, arguing that mental patients need love because it is vital for the healing process.

“People with psychiatric condition need empathy from people that surround them and their relations. If they start feeling neglected, it worsens their condition,” Matemba said.

A research paper published on March 29 2022 titled, ‘We do not talk about it’: Engaging youth in Malawi to inform adaptation of a mental health literacy intervention’, highlights the mental health situation in the country.

The paper, authored by academicians Gase Motshewa, Subba Rao Pulapa, a health psychologist Sandra Jumbe, executive director at Drug Fight Malawi Nelson Zakeyu, Joel Nyali, and Maryrose Simbeye, says the country’s chronic lack of mental health services and healthcare professionals amplifies limited treatment access and knowledge.

The authors say depression in Malawi is common with prevalence rates of up to 20 percent among adolescents and 30 percent more broadly among young people.

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