As women age in rural Ghana, signs of dementia, mental health issues or even menopausal symptoms can result in them being declared ‘witches’ and pushed out of their community. Around 80 women live in such exile in Kukuo ‘witch village’
Stigma, misinformation and a dearth of psychiatric resources mean many Ghanaians resort to chaining up their loved ones or patients, sometimes for years on end
All photographs by Robin Hammond
Continue reading...For the families of Ghanaians with mental health or substance abuse issues, shackling their loved ones can seem the only option, as faith healers compete to fill the mental health void
All photographs by Robin Hammond
Under the baobab tree two goats are tethered to the great trunk by ropes. Baba Agunga, a man in his twenties, is held by chains. A bracelet shackle round each of his ankles leads to a chain rusted to the same tone as the Ghanaian mud and welded tight around a thick, solid tree root.
He sits naked on a cloth, hugging thin legs, his skin dusty dry and his eyes vacant. He has been there for three years says his mother, Aniah Agunga.
Continue reading...MPs call for inquiry into case of Errol Graham, 57, who weighed 28.5kg when he was found dead
MPs and campaigners have called for an independent inquiry after it emerged a disabled man with a long history of mental illness starved to death just months after welfare officials stopped his out-of-work and housing benefits.
Errol Graham, a 57-year-old grandfather, and in his younger days a keen amateur footballer, weighed just four and a half stone (28.5kg) when his emaciated body was discovered by bailiffs who had broken down his front door to evict him for non-payment of rent.
Continue reading...‘There’s always some standard of beauty that you’re not meeting,’ she tells Miss Americana director Lana Wilson
Taylor Swift has disclosed her experiences with an eating disorder in a new documentary. In Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, which received its premiere at the Sundance film festival last night, Swift says that she would starve herself to the extent that she felt as if she might pass out during live performances.
The 30-year-old star said she would make a list of everything she ate, exercised constantly and shrank to a UK size two; she is now a size 10. “I would have defended it to anybody who said ‘I’m concerned about you,’” she tells the film’s director, Lana Wilson.
Continue reading...Research also finds heavy use of social media to follow socio-political events appears to increase risk on mental health
Nearly one in three adults in Hong Kong reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during months of often violent social unrest in the city, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday.
Related: Portraits of Hong Kong's masked protesters – in pictures
Continue reading...With fewer than two psychiatrists for every 100,000 people, experts are seeking innovative solutions to address the emergency
On a sunny morning at Calcutta Pavlov Hospital, 600 people wait patiently in the outpatient department. For many, the journey to see a doctor started hours before sunrise, with some even travelling overnight to secure their place in line. Despite waiting for hours, most will spend just 90 seconds with the psychiatrist.
One of the doctors on call, Dr Debananda Saha, expects to treat about 250 patients during his seven-hour shift at the government hospital.
Continue reading...Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression, research suggests
People living with air pollution have higher rates of depression and suicide, a systematic review of global data has found.
Cutting air pollution around the world to the EU’s legal limit could prevent millions of people becoming depressed, the research suggests. This assumes that exposure to toxic air is causing these cases of depression. Scientists believe this is likely but is difficult to prove beyond doubt.
Continue reading...Damning CQC report on private Cygnet Acer clinic where patients could self harm and one died by hanging
A privately run mental health unit has been banned from admitting new patients after inspectors found numerous safety failings, one of which led to a resident dying by hanging.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has stopped the Cygnet Acer Clinic, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, from accepting new inpatients. It declared that the facility was “not safe” for people to use.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch said people were chained and faced physical and sexual violence in both state and religious centres
Nigeria has been urged to end all forms of abuse in state-run mental health institutions as well as religious healing centres.
In a report published on Monday Human Rights Watch (HRW) said thousands of Nigerians with mental health conditions face prolonged detention, chaining, physical and sexual violence or forced treatment, including electroshock therapy.
Continue reading...The deficiencies in the mental health and aged care systems are distressing realities that need to be confronted
The facts on suicide in Australia, the Productivity Commission informs us, are stark. Every year, 3,000 people end their own lives, more than eight people every day. It is the leading cause of death for young adults, and suicide rates in Indigenous communities are more than double the rest of the community. This picture has been static for a decade.
Some people with mental illness are plagued with suicidal ideations, and for some that ends in tragedy, but as Scott Morrison’s suicide prevention adviser, Christine Morgan, told me earlier this year, a substantial proportion of people who take their lives in Australia never present to clinicians with depression or another illness.
Continue reading...Top child psychiatrist appeals to Johnson over Home Office’s ‘almost callous’ decision
A leading children’s psychiatrist plans to quit the NHS and move to Australia because of the Home Office’s “almost callous” refusal to let his mother stay in Britain.
Dr Nishchint Warikoo, the lead psychiatrist for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Hampshire, said he and his family were being “forced to leave” the UK in order to stay together.
Continue reading...Feeling increasingly anxious and lost, Liv Siddall found herself retreating to the comfort and security of video games – often playing for hours at a time. Here, she reveals how she finally escaped back to reality
In 2005, when I was 16, I worked in a busy local café. My job was to make tea and coffee and I churned out hot beverages at high speed, while constantly restocking my cup and saucer area. I found the work hard and boring, which was strange given that at the end of every shift I’d rush home to play Diner Dash, a video game in which you become a waitress in a busy restaurant, taking orders, serving customers, clearing away their cups and plates.
In the great pantheon of PC games, Diner Dash was not among the most realistic, but I enjoyed its simplicity and I was enthralled by the thrill that came with pleasing customers and advancing levels. How many levels were available was never made clear. The game seemed infinite. I’d play it for hours.
Continue reading...National agencies granted greater power to enforce existing laws banning practices such as shackling
Indonesia is stepping up efforts to protect people with mental health conditions by affording national agencies new powers to monitor and close down institutions found to be abusing patients.
The country’s human rights commission and its witness and victim protection unit are among the agencies empowered to monitor facilities to check they don’t contravene a 1977 government ban on “pasung” – shackling or detaining patients in confined spaces.
Continue reading...National Trust research finds birdsong and rustling leaves increase relaxation by 30%
Gentle woodland sounds such as birdsong and the breeze rustling leaves in the trees are more relaxing than meditation recordings, a new study claims.
Researchers exposed participants to three soundtracks – a woodland, a woman guiding a meditation session and deep silence.
Continue reading...Dr Vatwani has spent three decades reuniting patients with mental health problems with their families
To the horror of the watching doctors, a young man on a Mumbai street picked up a broken coconut shell, scooped up dirty gutter water with it, and drank.
“I still recall the scene vividly,” says 61-year-old Mumbai psychiatrist Dr Bharat Vatwani. “My wife, Smitha – also a psychiatrist – and I, watched from across the street.”
Continue reading...Mental health is a critical issue for those who have fled their homes to Europe. Many feel stuck, both physically and mentally: held in limbo by immigration systems and tormented by the horror of past experiences
When I couldn’t sleep, I would turn to my mobile for a portal into another world. But there were definite downsides to scanning Instagram in the early hours
When I was a kid, I thought that monsters came out of the dark. Turns out, they actually come out of the light. Like you, I run my life on the supercomputer in my pocket. At night I would place it under the pillow and struggle to put it out of mind, its bright screen a portal to other worlds.
Sure, most of Twitter is bile, but social media suits my exhibitionist spirit; I want to be front and centre of whatever conversations are happening. As a journalist, I am meant to be. When I said I wanted to get my phone out of my bedroom, a colleague half-jokingly asked : “What if something happens?”
Continue reading...Addicted teenagers travelling to overseas clinics as there are no NHS facilities to treat them
Teenagers addicted to gaming are travelling to private clinics overseas for treatment due to a lack of services in England and Wales to tackle the growing problem, the Guardian has learned.
There are no NHS facilities to treat gaming addiction, which was listed and defined as a condition in the 11th edition of International Classification of Diseases. It means people are having to seek treatment privately or travel abroad.
Continue reading...US scientists say their blood test can be 94% effective in spotting those at risk of the illness
A blood test that can detect signs of Alzheimer’s as much as 20 years before the disease begins to have a debilitating effect has been developed by researchers in the US.
Scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis in Missouri believe the test can identify changes in the brain suggestive of Alzheimer’s with 94% accuracy, while being much cheaper and simpler than a PET brain scan.
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