Meals for patients in the special ward of the Accra psychiatric hospital have been reduced to twice a day instead of the normal three times daily due to financial constraints that the hospital is encountering.

The patients are fed with porridge in the morning and are served with a heavy meal at 4:00 pm to cover both afternoon and evening. Recently the authorities of the hospital called on the government to ask the patients to contribute toward their up keep at the hospital.

This came to light when 70 Junior Secondary School graduates from the Calvary Baptist Church were taken on a tour by the Psycho (mental) Health Foundation International Club as parts of their 11th annual vacation bible school to create the awareness on the dangers of drug abuse.

According to the nurse in-charge at the ward, there are 176 patients on admission with four nurses attending to them. He said most of the cases reported to the special ward are drug related cases from the courts. He said the ward used to be called Criminal Ward due to the type of cases admitted there, but was later changed to Special Ward since it is not all the patients who are referred from the courts.

The situation at the Male Admission 1 ward was no different; out of the 170 patients on admission, it was disclosed that two thirds of this number were drug addicts with majority being students from the ages of 16 years and above.

At the Male Admission 2 ward, there were 102 patients, the youngest being 16 and a mere three nurses attending to them. According to the nurse in-charge at the ward, 95 per cent of all the cases at the ward are drug related. He disclosed that there are only 40 beds to accommodate the 102 patients hence, the remaining patients are forced to sleep on the floor.

According to Mr. Maculey, president of the Psycho (Mental) Health Foundation International Club and the deputy nursing officer at the hospital, most of the patients who recover but could not go home due to stigmatization and rejection by relatives have become ward helpers - cleaning and washing bowls at the hospital.

He called on the public to accept their relatives who have recovered. This he said is the only way to decongest the wards and reduced the number of beggars on the street. "The wards are getting overcrowded as a result of patients who refuse to leave" he said.

Psycho mental health foundation international club is a non-governmental organisation with the aims of educating, creating awareness on the dangers and implication of drug abuse, to form anti-drug abuse clubs in all secondary and primary schools.

"It is necessary to educate the public to under stand that mental illness is not infectious like AIDS and T.B and also we appeal to the public to assist in kind and in cash for taking care of patients."