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The largest psychiatric hospital in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo’s Ingutsheni Central Hospital, is seeing overcrowding in wards with referrals of more patients with drug and substance-related problems.
Speaking at the launch of the cycling campaign against drug and substance abuse, Ingutsheni chief medical officer Dr Nemache Mawere said their biggest challenge at the moment was overcrowding by patients with drug and substance-related problems.
“There is a problem of overcrowding as we speak. One of our biggest wards, Khumalo, is supposed to carry 98 patients but as we speak we have 150 to 200 patients at any given time,” he said.
Ingutsheni has 700 beds.
Dr Mawere said the most abused drugs included crystal meth, commonly known as mutoriro, and illicit alcohol varieties such as mukozodo, njengu and tumbwa.
“People are abusing alcohol in a big way. There is also the problem of cannabis which people are using and getting mentally disturbed,” he said, adding the Government was playing an important role in curbing the menace throughout the country.
Since Ingutsheni was not a rehabilitation unit, the hospital was pushing strongly to ensure communities start taking care of people with drug use problems.
“Ingutsheni is not a rehabilitation centre but we are operating like a rehabilitation unit because it’s the only place where people can go when they have drug use problems.
“We are pushing to ensure communities start taking care of people with drug use problems. We hope we will win this fight through working together as Zimbabweans to make sure we eliminate this problem,” he said.
Communities needed to help people stay off drugs. A major challenge was that when patients are treated and get back to their communities, they start abusing substances and drugs again.
The Government has established a national task force on Drug and Substance Abuse which has been replicated in provinces and districts across the country to coordinate the response to the scourge. — New Ziana
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter