Bamenda: Health officials warn many cases of psychosis are unattended to

The number of people suffering from psychosocial illnesses in Bamenda is said to be on the rise.

The alert has been made by a Mental Health specialist in charge of the psychosocial support unit at the Bamenda regional hospital, Njiya Claude Francois. He has encouraged persons experiencing psychological trauma to visit the Bamenda Regional hospital and benefit from the free ongoing screening exercise ahead of the Mental Health day coming up on Sunday.

“The fact is that the crisis that we facing in the North West, the anglophone crisis and the pandemic crisis, has caused the increased of patients with mental health problems”, Njila Francois said.

Although the number of persons with mental health problems keeps rising, Njila Francois regrets the fact that people are afraid to go to the hospital.

” People don’t come to the hospital. We don’t have the number of patients that we are expecting to have”, he said.

World Mental Health Day is celebrated annually on October 10. It is an international day for global mental health education, awareness, ness, and advocacy against social stigma.

It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization with members in more than 150 countries.

This year, the day will be celebrated in the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World”