health - Sierra Leone

400,000 patients, one psychiatrist

Thursday 20 March 2008

400,000 mental patients count on Sierra Leone's only psychiatrist or ineffective traditional medicine for treatment. Dr. Nahim uses controversial methods, but do people have the choice? (Report: I.Taoufiki)

Sierra Leone’s civil war was one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent African history. It ended in 2002 but the invisible wounds of war are still raw.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are 400,000 mental health patients in Sierra Leone as a result of the conflict. Psychiatrists and psychologists treat only 2% of the ill, while the remaining 98% are treated by traditional doctors.

Six years after the official end of the war, health conditions in the country are deplorable. The psychiatric sector is in especially bad shape.

France 24 met with patients of Dr. Nahim, the only psychiatrist in the only psychiatric hospital in Sierra Leone, a country with 6 million inhabitants. He lacks resources and time, and his methods can seem shocking.

Ravages of war

Putting aside for a moment those who continue to suffer from the lasting psychological affects of war, the numbers of victims are devastating:  more than 200,000 dead; tens of thousands of amputees. During the war, rebels cut off their hands to prevent them from working and voting.

The attacks the RUF (Revolutionary United Front), a Sierra Leone rebel group backed by Liberian leader Charles Taylor, resulted in the displacement of 2 million inhabitants.

During the conflict, young boys were conscripted, drugged, and sometimes forced to kill their own parents. Young girls were often forced into sexual slavery. There were also reports of cannibalism.