Isn’t it about time for the Ministry of Health to begin implementing the royal decree to set up 11 treatment centers nationwide for the mentally ill and drug addicts? The decree was issued last year and ordered these centers up and running within three years. It seems nothing has been done to obey the order.
Meanwhile the number of mentally ill and drug addicts are on the rise, outpacing the number of health centers aimed at treating these people. For example: Did you know there are only three drug-abuse rehab centers in Saudi Arabia?
Hospitals — ill equipped to deal with the mentally ill — are often simply doling out medication and sending patients back to their families. Sometimes the families must go to pharmacies to buy this medication, which can be very expensive.
Wealthier families may not have a problem with this; they can send their loved ones to posh rehab centers in Europe or the United States, or they can afford to pay for top-shelf medical treatment from private hospitals inside or outside the Kingdom. What about the rest of us? Who helps cure Saudis who can’t afford the luxury of private health care facilities?
People with mental illnesses can pose a threat to loved ones, even the threat of murder. They pose a threat to themselves, too, and can commit suicide, one of the gravest of sins. The mentally ill can commit crimes for which they have less culpability than people with full mental faculties, which complicates criminal prosecutions.
Officials at the Ministry of Health are doubtlessly aware of all of these things. Yet despite the awareness, families are still being shuttled from one hospital to the next with their mentally ill family members, unable to find beds or treatment.
The royal decree gave the Ministry of Health three years: One down, two to go. Has anything been done?
