Asks Doreen Hammond
THE story in the Daily Graphic of Thursday April 21, 2011 was sad and surprising. It was reported that a mother of a ten year old in Sefwi –Tantrim in the Western Region had held her daughter’s head in water until she died.
According to the police, the mother, Memuna Salam, held the legs of her daughter, Isha, and forcibly plunged her head into a container she had already filled with water until the girl was lifeless.
In January last year, Ghanaians were faced with a very similar incident. A 31-year-old woman, Georgina Pipson, killed all her five children through food poisoning. The matter d id not end there, for Georgina took her own life. The public outcry was great but after several discussions in the media the matter went to rest. Georgina was also a mentally ill patient who had relapsed. And who were to bear the fatal brunt but Georgina’s own five children .
The Psychiatric Hospital is not a place where the mentally ill are kept forever. It is a place where the mentally ill receive treatment and return to their family just like malaria patients would. But often times, people see the mentally ill as dangerous and troublesome, they go begging the doctors at the psychiatric hospitals to keep them there indefinitely.
Other family members go to the extent of leaving their mentally ill patients in the hospital deliberately giving wrong contact details; the reason for this is obvious— they would never come back for their own even if he/she gets better and they don’t want to be traced.
Worse still, some will just dump their mentally ill at the gates of the psychiatric hospital, look left, right and left again and disappear.
The reasons for this situation vary including the reason that some families are too concerned about the stigmatisation associated with mental illness and would therefore not want it known that one of their own is mentally ill. They are therefore too ready to abandon them.
Recently, a number of inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital who had been cured of their mental illnesses were faced with forced ejection from the hospital.
The Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the inmates had all been declared fully recovered and discharged from the hospital but they had refused to leave and make way for other patients.
The hospital, however, arranged transport and other logistics and managed to send some of the patients to their homes.
Why would patients on admission who have recovered refuse to go back to their family? Could it have been the fear of neglect and stigmatisation by their own families? Something is definitely wrong somewhere because other patients on admission in some hospitals look forward to going home— Home sweet home.
The story of Memuna raises some issues. The questions that readily come to mind are : Was there nobody at all around when she dipped her daughter’s head in water until she died? Especially when it was no secret that she had a record of two similar acts that had earlier taken away the lives of two other children? Who was concerned about whether Memuna followed up on her treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital or not? Where is Isha’s father and what are his responsibilities to his daughter? Did the family members of Memuna provide her with the obvious support she needed as a mentally ill patient by ensuring that she took her medications? And why did they leave the care of her daughter solely in her hands?
I would not go into the relationship between crime and mental disorders; that was done extensively by the experts when Georgina Pipson did the unthinkable. I would not go into the issues of social welfare and children’s homes where one would think Memuna’s daughter would have been safer. This is because we are all aware of the challenges these institutions face with facilities, finances and staff. The case of the Osu Children’s home got so much publicity recently for all the bad reasons. But how about the family? Does Memuna have a family? Where is Isha’s father and what is his responsibility to his daughter ?
The two cases of Georgina and Memuna have brought to light once more the indication that we are not doing too well with being our neighbour’s keeper and that the extended family support system is gradually breaking down.
Everybody seems so busy these days chasing money that the very values we used to cherish, looking out for one another is getting lost. In an extended family system, not all members are able to join the chase for money ( Not by choice though). Some stayed at home while others went but their role was appreciated by the haves taking care of the have nots. Some found themselves at home and they looked after people like Memuna.
Interestingly, the family system is very active when the ultimate happens—death. You get to see the Abusuapanyin issuing instructions as to his likes and dislikes based not on principles but his interests! Members surface in full regalia to give instructions as to how the funeral must be organised. They start apportioning blame to anyone but themselves! In most cases the sole interest is how to benefit from the death and to gain cheap popularity.
Out of neglect, innocent children have lost their lives. Why can’t we go back to the era where the family served as an institution for emotional and financial support? Where family members are each others keeper. If that is becoming impossible because of the difficult economic times then now is the time to strengthen the institutions that cater for the welfare society— Institutions that protect the child. No more children should suffer what Memuna and Georgina’s children have suffered!
Writer’s email : aamakai@hotmail.com
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES
By Doreen Hammond
THE immediate past boss of the Ghana Broadcasting corporation (GBC) has revealed how he had to contain ‘stale’ workers who had outlived their usefulness in the organisation. Though we may see this as the cries of a drowning man, this may be bigger than we think for it is a problem that transcends the GBC and is common in many organisations.
The world is dynamic and so things keep changing by the day if not by the minute and we risk becoming redundant if we do not continuously update ourselves in whatever enterprise we find ourselves .
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the practice in our part of the world. And so we have some university professors still teaching 1930 theories to students, some doctors prescribing treatments scrapped off since the Second World War and typists who have not been able to migrate to the use of the computer over the period.
For instance, a modern day journalist should be able to file his story, take pictures and run a voice over where necessary as against the olden days where these functions would have been performed by three or four people. So we have the Christiana Ampours with a minimum of crew beaming news to the whole world while in our setting we will use a whole platoon to do that . Just look at the long list of names that appear after a short programme on our television screens.
The situation is even worse in the informal sector where for the lack of any meaningful continuous assessment, people graduate into certain vocations and never upgrade themselves.
Take the average mason, carpenter or plumber for instance; apart from having acquired his training on the side lines ; say from his “master” by apprenticeship and graduated without any test of his proficiency, he may never attend any upgrading course throughout his professional career and thus as new technology and tools are introduced, he stubbornly sticks to the old ways until he becomes irrelevant and sometimes even a danger to clients. Have you ever had an item of yours destroyed instead of repaired by any of these artisans? And who paid for the cost of the destruction of your property which was supposed to have been repaired?
The petrified face of a plumber who could not fix my water closet is still so vivid to me. It took another plumber barely an hour to do what this other plumber said could never be done. The relationship between that plumber and I now? Of course your guess is as good as mine, that was the last time I called him to do any work for me.
When automobile technology changed from back axle to front wheel drive, most of our mechanics refused to move with the tide, claiming that the former was better, even after the owners of the technology had through research come out with what had been acclaimed an improvement. The same happened with the change in technology from the carburettor to the injector systems. Since we don't manufacture cars and the manufacturers had settled on the new technology, we had to tow their line or risk getting out of business. With time when the manufacturers of back axle cars and carburettor engines stopped manufacturing such cars, some of these mechanics lost their entire clientele and relocated to Kokompe where they are doing all sorts of things to earn a living now.
So you send a vehicle to the mechanic because the brake lights won’t go off ? The answer is simple, he removes the bulb! Problem solved!
I remember a visit to the Tema DVLA offices early 2000 where I met a white man who looked baffled and perplexed. The gentleman had come to trace the documents on a vehicle he had purchased and had had to pay money for the search to be conducted. His surprise obviously was not about paying for the search, but the fact that the one searching had to virtually ‘swim’ through a garage full of old files covered with dust and cobwebs and smelling of decay.
After three and half hours, the poor “searcher”, drenched in sweat and decay appeared with the file gasping for breath but beaming with a triumphant smile for performing what to him was a miracle! The white man's consternation might have stemmed from the fact that he expected the information to be available to him by a click of the mouse. The reality is that, it is not only at the DVLA offices that such old and archaic practices are found. It cuts across most public and private organisations.
With the introduction of the computer, one would have expected that we would have tapped into its full uses, including storage of data. Regrettably, what we have been able to do so far, is to replace the type writer with the computer.
The bottom line is that organisations must identify the most effective and modern ways of going about their businesses and eschew bureaucracy. Such action could help us make some savings.
In a similar way, we as individuals , must make the needed efforts to be abreast of the latest ways of doing our jobs. The organisations for which we work could meet us half way by continuously creating the necessary environment for learning and organising training courses in order that we upgrade our skills .
Failure to do this and we risk becoming the ‘Suegbe’ that the legendary Nigerian Musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, sang about. A tailor sewing like a carpenter!!
Writer’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
THE immediate past boss of the Ghana Broadcasting corporation (GBC) has revealed how he had to contain ‘stale’ workers who had outlived their usefulness in the organisation. Though we may see this as the cries of a drowning man, this may be bigger than we think for it is a problem that transcends the GBC and is common in many organisations.
The world is dynamic and so things keep changing by the day if not by the minute and we risk becoming redundant if we do not continuously update ourselves in whatever enterprise we find ourselves .
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the practice in our part of the world. And so we have some university professors still teaching 1930 theories to students, some doctors prescribing treatments scrapped off since the Second World War and typists who have not been able to migrate to the use of the computer over the period.
For instance, a modern day journalist should be able to file his story, take pictures and run a voice over where necessary as against the olden days where these functions would have been performed by three or four people. So we have the Christiana Ampours with a minimum of crew beaming news to the whole world while in our setting we will use a whole platoon to do that . Just look at the long list of names that appear after a short programme on our television screens.
The situation is even worse in the informal sector where for the lack of any meaningful continuous assessment, people graduate into certain vocations and never upgrade themselves.
Take the average mason, carpenter or plumber for instance; apart from having acquired his training on the side lines ; say from his “master” by apprenticeship and graduated without any test of his proficiency, he may never attend any upgrading course throughout his professional career and thus as new technology and tools are introduced, he stubbornly sticks to the old ways until he becomes irrelevant and sometimes even a danger to clients. Have you ever had an item of yours destroyed instead of repaired by any of these artisans? And who paid for the cost of the destruction of your property which was supposed to have been repaired?
The petrified face of a plumber who could not fix my water closet is still so vivid to me. It took another plumber barely an hour to do what this other plumber said could never be done. The relationship between that plumber and I now? Of course your guess is as good as mine, that was the last time I called him to do any work for me.
When automobile technology changed from back axle to front wheel drive, most of our mechanics refused to move with the tide, claiming that the former was better, even after the owners of the technology had through research come out with what had been acclaimed an improvement. The same happened with the change in technology from the carburettor to the injector systems. Since we don't manufacture cars and the manufacturers had settled on the new technology, we had to tow their line or risk getting out of business. With time when the manufacturers of back axle cars and carburettor engines stopped manufacturing such cars, some of these mechanics lost their entire clientele and relocated to Kokompe where they are doing all sorts of things to earn a living now.
So you send a vehicle to the mechanic because the brake lights won’t go off ? The answer is simple, he removes the bulb! Problem solved!
I remember a visit to the Tema DVLA offices early 2000 where I met a white man who looked baffled and perplexed. The gentleman had come to trace the documents on a vehicle he had purchased and had had to pay money for the search to be conducted. His surprise obviously was not about paying for the search, but the fact that the one searching had to virtually ‘swim’ through a garage full of old files covered with dust and cobwebs and smelling of decay.
After three and half hours, the poor “searcher”, drenched in sweat and decay appeared with the file gasping for breath but beaming with a triumphant smile for performing what to him was a miracle! The white man's consternation might have stemmed from the fact that he expected the information to be available to him by a click of the mouse. The reality is that, it is not only at the DVLA offices that such old and archaic practices are found. It cuts across most public and private organisations.
With the introduction of the computer, one would have expected that we would have tapped into its full uses, including storage of data. Regrettably, what we have been able to do so far, is to replace the type writer with the computer.
The bottom line is that organisations must identify the most effective and modern ways of going about their businesses and eschew bureaucracy. Such action could help us make some savings.
In a similar way, we as individuals , must make the needed efforts to be abreast of the latest ways of doing our jobs. The organisations for which we work could meet us half way by continuously creating the necessary environment for learning and organising training courses in order that we upgrade our skills .
Failure to do this and we risk becoming the ‘Suegbe’ that the legendary Nigerian Musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, sang about. A tailor sewing like a carpenter!!
Writer’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
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