Gambia Commemorates World Mental Health Day
The Gambia through Mentally Disabled Gambia (AMDG),office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse and Prevention, Africa Project Against Suicide (APSA) and International Voluntary Mental Health Organization(I.V.M.H.O) joined the rest of the world to commemorate World Mental Health Day at the Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Hospital.
The theme for this year World Mental Health Day is “Mental Health is a Universal Human Right”
During the event, Yankuba Suwareh a representative from the ministry of health highlighted that having a mental health condition should not be a reason to deprive a person of their human rights or to exclude them from decisions of their own health.
He said, the Ministry of Health has approved investment case on Mental Health through the WHO and also Mental health service is challenged globally and Gambia is not an exception.
Bakary Camara the Matron of Tanka Tanka said family care is important to mentally challenged people and that families should take Care of their mentally challenged family members instead of just dumping them at the tanka tanka just to be an added burden to the workers there.
Baboucarr further expressed that they are doing their best to stabilize patients but it’s not always possible because of the lack of rehabilitation centres in the whole country.
Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Hospital is the only psychiatric in-patient facility, located in Salaji. It was built in 2009 by a Dutch non-governmental organisation (NGO),and then donated to the Gambia government.
Tanka Tanka is a place where people with mental illness are welcomed, They are bought there to stay for a short while and medicine would be given to them till when they feel that they are ready to go back to society then they are release.
