Many Ghanaian families, whose family members have mental health or drug abuse problems, turn to traditional healers who treat patients in inhumane ways, linking them with chains to tree trunks or to wedges on the ground, leaving them out in the summer and winter. In West Africa, as in some parts of the world, confusion between the concept of evil spirits and mental illness exacerbates the suffering of patients.

A tragic picture

Under a large tree in the village of Zorko, in northern Ghana, Baba Agunga is chained bound, and within walking distance are two goats tied with a rope to the tree itself. Agunga is in his twenties, bound by a rusty chain around his ankles. He sits naked and brushes a cloth, and from time to time his thin legs are attached to his chest, his skin is dry and his eyes crossed away. His mother, Anya Agusta, says that for three years he stayed there in the same place during the winter, summer and autumn, not far from the family's hut. His father tied him there and remained in place after his father died, his two sisters married, they moved away, and they had children.

His mother tries to explain the cause of his illness: “He was a good boy, he traveled to the south and was fine, and he used to make bracelets and sell them. He came home one day with his friends and smoked marijuana. I don’t know if it was these herbs that caused his illness, but he became very aggressive "He had a better medication, but there was nothing left of the drugs," she added. But she added, "He tried to attack me with a knife, which is why his father asked for chains of mourning. This was the case three years ago. The rain annoys him, but he becomes quieter in the dry season."

There are no treatments available for mental health and neurological diseases such as mind and epilepsy in this sprawling region. Across Ghana there are a handful of community mental health nurses, three hospitals and 13 psychiatrists, most of them in the capital, Accra. In a country of 30 million people, all officials realize that mental illness and depression are on the rise.

"Since we do not have access to medicines at all times, the only option for the parents is the chain," says young nurse Stephen Asante. Asante works as a nurse in the field of psychiatry, and devotes his effort outside the educational hospital in Tamale in the north of the country, where he established his charitable institution to defend mental health, and he persuaded local radio stations to give him broadcast time to educate the parents, and uses the mobile phone to expand the awareness of mental illness. He adds: "Most people in the north do not understand the meaning of mental illness, do not know what to do, and in most cases they leave the sick, or take them to the traditional spiritual therapy camps."

Overlap traditions

Ghana is a country in which the traditions of spiritual and material therapy intersect with one of the most successful comprehensive health care insurance systems on the African continent. The country was marked by a vaccination program that was well-suited to other sub-Saharan countries, and the government made efforts to begin addressing the enormous shortage of professional medical skills, a gap that is now being filled by spiritual healers, herbalists and quacks.

In West Africa, fear of evil spirits exacerbates the suffering of patients. Therefore, seeing patients tied to trees or pegs on the ground is so common that this disease supports the prosperity of the blacksmithing industry, where a chain maker can be easily found in every village. Asante confirms the increase in the number of youth suffering from psychological conditions, and he believes that there is a significant increase in drug and alcohol abuse rates. He says: “The hashish grown in Ghana is the strongest influence on the mind in the world, in addition to the impact of misuse of young men and some young women to tramadol drugs or cocaine.”

Sarah's story

In the village of Baga, near Ghana's border with Burkina Faso, Muslim and Christian teams are competing to provide spiritual treatment to patients through prayer. Sarah suffers a dangerous swelling on her ankle due to being linked to a bicycle chain, which she dived into her flesh, and says: “I fell ill after every birth of one of my three children.” She adds: “I ran away from this place when they brought me to treatment because I wanted to see my baby, I fear "To stay here at night." Asante believes Sarah suffers from postpartum depression, and camp staff are asked to release her because she is a nursing mother. They are also asked to bring her baby, but to no avail. The debate is heating up and Asante decides to leave them to try the next day. "Respect for Ghana's mental health officials is so poor," Asante says, "that some health professionals call us the nurse nurse, even in the hospital. My professional colleagues in various departments call me the nurse's nurse." "Since I started the radio program, the response has been good. People who have listened to my program come to the clinic or bring their relatives for evaluation and treatment."

Aban Naya, an Islamic therapist who uses his grandfather's methods of treatment and refuses to resort to strings, has a line of people in his clinic, he says there are herbs to calm people, it is not true that the patient is linked in the chain «I ask people to take their relatives with them to their homes, they are not Demons.

Lack of medical care

The World Health Organization estimates that only 2% of the 2.75 million Ghanaians with mental disorders receive care in medical facilities, mostly on the southern coastal belt. This would cause hundreds of thousands of patients to suffer from lack of access to government-controlled treatments, and many would turn to help from spiritual camps operating without government oversight.

"Basic Needs Ghana" is one of the charitable institutions that work in treating the mentally ill in modern methods, and imports medicines, but what is imported is nothing more than a drop to treat numbers of patients that are constantly increasing, and one of the officials of this institution says: “Almost all psychological cases in Ghana cannot buy medicines, even if they are available, and that some patients get the medicines, but they return to the hospital and there is not a lot of them, and this is a critical problem because it can make them not only suffer from relapse, but they get worse, and it is not a good idea to try to treat Culture and beliefs if there is no will For politics and resources. ”

It is believed that prayer camps can be beneficial because they represent a human face, but inhuman treatment must be stopped in the use of chains and violence as an excuse for treatment, and through medications, patients can be treated without restrictions or left in extreme weather conditions.

Special centers

The steady increase in suicides is the reason behind the emergence of the Edomo Wu Wu Herbal and Spiritual Center, where King and his brother Herbert help their mother Irene Dazy to operate it, a treatment she learned from this profession from her mother. A banner appears in front of the center reading "We treat all diseases". Dazi is keen not to speak to reporters unless they pay it, and Herbert justifies that the center needs more money to complete its construction, which was halted after the collapse of the bank from which they borrow.

The center is built with treatment rooms, waiting rooms and a cooking place that smells strong herbal. In a large dark room with a low ceiling, about 20 men sat on the floor, many of them dressed in their underwear in a very hot atmosphere, all bound by handcuffs.

Sometimes it takes six men to restrain the patient, King said, but it is necessary to keep patients safe and prevent them from escaping or fighting. He added, "We need a fence here so we can unblock them." One of the patients, whose name is Jacqueline Ker Bavor (22 years), spoke to her and she was hurting herself: “I recommend this place, when they put me in chains, the justification for that is to make sure I do not run away.” Safe, I felt good, and my mother advised me to communicate with friends. ”

- In West Africa, fear of evil lives exacerbates the suffering of patients, so seeing patients tied to trees or pegs on the ground is so common that this disease supports the prosperity of the blacksmithing industry, where a "chain maker" can be easily found in every village.

There are no treatments available for mental health and neurological diseases, such as mind and epilepsy, in this vast region. Across Ghana there are a handful of community mental health nurses, three hospitals and 13 psychiatrists, most of them in the capital, Accra.