The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
PSYCHIATRIC hospitals in Zimbabwe are still inundated with admissions of persons abusing drugs and other harmful substances with Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital in Bulawayo receiving as many as 10 addicts per day despite various Government interventions.
The Government has taken the fight against drug and substance abuse seriously with over 6 000 peddlers arrested in recent months, among other interventions. Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital’s Clinical Director Dr Wellington Ranga told Sunday News in an interview that despite the initiatives being implemented, admissions have remained high for people with drug and substance abuse problems.
Ingutsheni Hospital
“There has been no change in the numbers that we admit to Ingutsheni. In fact they are actually increasing. The days differ but we admit anything between two to 10 patients a day and that is a lot. We have serious problems with these high admissions and we currently have 212 admitted for drug abuse as of today (Thursday),” said Dr Ranga.
He said despite the arrests under Operation Clean-Up Zimbabwe Campaign, the admissions have not yet responded positively.
“With this initiative, I think the effects of the blitz on drug peddlers will be seen a few months down the line as access will now be limited. We, therefore, need to be a little patient as the results will definitely be seen with time. It is a good starting point that the Government is now arresting these people,” said Dr Ranga.
He said women and girls were also finding their way to Ingutsheni for drug and alcohol abuse problems.
“It is sad that we are seeing women and girls admitted for drug and substance abuse. The figures are rising although lower than those for males. When we do rehabilitation, the reasons for the use of drugs are not really explicit. In most cases there are no genuine reasons but we realise that a majority of these women experiment with drugs for fun and pleasure, so there is a problem as they get addicted. It is more of a social thing that they engage in drugs and nothing more,” he lamented.
Medical Superintendent for Ngomahuru Psychiatric Hospital in Masvingo Dr Parirenyatwa Maramba also said statistics of drug and substance abuse users have not changed at their institution.
“The number is still the same, actually we are still getting more admissions despite the blitz on the peddlers. There is no change at all from what we are recording and this is a sign that the problem of drugs and substance abuse is bigger than what we are seeing on the surface,” he said.
Dr Maramba said a lot of focus is on extreme cases of drug abusers but there were others at homes and schools.
“The challenge is that the drug users that are visibly overdosed are the ones being talked about but there is a huge chunk of high school boys and some in tertiary institutions who are big users of drugs too and these are only seen when they are brought into the psychiatric institutions from their homes. So, the numbers are high,” said Dr Maramba.
He said since numbers have remained on the high end, more needed to be done to ensure that the drug problem in the country was arrested.
“We need a multi-sectoral approach to how the issue of drugs is handled, the youths, parents, businesses, and Government need to come together to ensure we get this problem off our hands and society is saved. If the community is not aware of the extent of the problem, then it becomes difficult to solve. More education and information dissemination needs to be done to the whole population so that all the efforts are combined to fix the problem,” he added.
Dr Maramba said private rehabilitation centres were charging as much as US$2 000 per month to admit a patient.
“It is unfortunate that we do not yet have public rehabilitation centres for drug users. We are just a psychiatric hospital that is now housing these patients but we are hoping that funds permitting, the Government will provide centres in the provinces that can assist in the rehabilitation of persons who abuse drugs and other substances,” he said.
The country has been carrying several anti-drug awareness campaigns where demand reduction activities have been ramped up in the media and various platforms. The Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, said in a Post Cabinet briefing recently that rehabilitation centres were going to be set up.
“The nation is being informed that more rehabilitation centres for victims of drug and substance abuse are being set up in major cities and towns in order to relieve pressure from existing institutions. Concurrently, steps are being taken to mobilise the whole of society from the family unit to villages, headmen and chiefs, religious organisations, schools, law enforcement agencies, prisons, youth skills training institutions as well as health centres, in order to achieve the much-needed traction in tackling the drug and substance abuse scourge,” she said. – @NyembeziMu
