adminAT some point during the first half of the year 2014, the country was gripped with a growing concern over crimes that were being committed by people suffering from mental illness. Manicaland has had these cases quite often with some having far reaching repercussions in families and the community at large.
This article does not attempt to attribute the general commission of crime to a state of psychiatric disorder arising from mental illness. In fact, the majority of crimes are committed by people who are in full control of their faculties.
While the numbers of cases committed by mental patients might be few they are far from being insignificant. The offences are often serious and if not checked can actually be very harmful to society.
Generally speaking, mental patients pose no harm to anybody. It is only those that are refractory that end up committing such offences like Assaults, Murder, Rape, Malicious damage to Property or even acts constituting a breach of public orderliness. The rest rather mind their own business and if properly taken care of, can be very productive and meaningfully contribute to the most important day to day activities that we all engage in for a living.
We therefore need to be cautious and get to understand how we can deal with our friends and relatives who are reeling under the effects of mental illness that render them prone to the commission of crime.
It is important to note that our laws to a large extent apportion blameworthiness in the commission of a crime to a person’s state of mind.
This suggests that people who commit crime during a state of mental disorder may not be held accountable for their actions and may thus escape punishment or liability for their actions if it is proved that they were actually suffering from such ailments during the act.
For this reason our duty as kins and guardian to mental patients is to ensure that they are not posing any harm to themselves or others in our neighbourhood. There have been cases were mental patients in homes have caused loss of live or damage to valuable property under circumstances that could have been avoided.
At one time, a mental patient escaped from the home of a traditional healer where she was receiving treatment and strayed onto a home where an elderly man had been left alone.
She picked up an axe left at the firewood place and struck the man twice on the head killing him instantly. In another incident, a woman died when her son whom she was taking for treatment to a nearby clinic turned violent, picked up a log from the road side and struck her on the head several times until she died. Another example is that of a recent attack on police officers in Chipinge where a mental patient sliced them with a knife after he had assaulted a local villager.
On several occasions you meet mental patients moving up and down the streets without harassing anybody but sometimes women and children can be at their mercy when they advance towards them threatening to harm them although this often ends up as mere intimidation.
Our primary concern in the manner we handle mental patients is to ensure their own safety and that of the public.
To prevent incidents of mental patients committing crime we need to take heed of some of the factors that contribute to them ending up doing so.
for those patients who live by themselves under any conditions, people must respect them and not provoke them in any way. Children must always be warned of this.
patients who are on medication should always be monitored to ensure that they take their medication as prescribed. They should therefore be kept under the supervision of an adult.
The police have often worked hand in glove with the relevant Ministry of Health and Justice to ensure that refractory patients are quickly taken care of in the event they have committed a crime or developed signs of wanting to do so.
While it is rather unfortunate that the psychiatric Unit based in Sakubva which used to cater for institutionalized patients is currently not functional, people should note that the Unit still offers Out Patient services.
Patients who need assistance should be taken to the unit in the company of a responsible adult so as to provide medical personnel with accurate information pertaining to the condition of the patient.
This will also help prevent misuse or even sale of drugs that are subsequently given to the patient.
The Unit can also arrange for home visits and continuation of care for the purpose of providing services that were previously provided to inmates at the institution.
The public is hereby called upon to seek the assistance of their nearest police to apprehend those patients who have become violent as mentioned before.
It is in extreme cases where patients have become uncontrollable and commit serious crimes that a docket is opened and the due process under the mental health Act is followed.
Such patients will always be treated and monitored from the remand prison.
It is now our duty to ensure that we seek more information on how to manage mental patients in our homes and within our communities as a way of preventing crime. Our police officers at stations are always ready to assist and can always direct you to relevant government and other departments that have an interest in this matter. All the seven districts in the province have District mental Health coordinators. These and any nearest health institutions can be consulted where need arises.
Inserted by : Manicaland ZRP Press and Public Relations
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