We often see them out on the streets, walking around and talking to themselves, with their hands waving in the air making incomprehensible gestures.

These are people with mental illnesses abandoned by their families. They are severely sunburned and wear old threadbare clothes.

Abdul Salam Al-Wabel, deputy supervisor of Al-Amal Complex for Mental Health in Dammam, said people suffering from severe mental illnesses need special care.

“But sometimes patients refuse to take their medication resulting in them losing complete control (over their behavior).”

Al-Wabel said these people need care from their families. “All family members should keep talking to them with love and care.”

He said people should not neglect family members suffering from mental problems because this would see them pushed out onto the streets.

“Sometimes security patrols find such people on the streets in unusual conditions and then bring them to us. If we cannot find their parents, we keep them in our facility as unknown persons. Our social workers try to find out as much information as possible about them.”

However, the hospital does not have enough beds. “So we are forced to let some of them go when their condition improves.”

To solve this problem, he said Al-Amal was building a 300-bed facility.

“It will be completed soon. The old building will be a rest house for the mentally ill,” he said.

Many citizens here say they have come across people in the streets who appear to have some kind of mental illness.

This happened to Husain Muhammad recently: “I was standing at a traffic light when such a person crossed the street in front of me. Suddenly he stopped and started beating on my window. I locked my door and waited anxiously for the light to turn green so I could get away.”

Ahmad Adnan, a restaurant owner in the city, said a person who eats at his place often makes no sense when he speaks. “I don’t know his name or address. But sometimes, when he speaks normally, I think he is just acting, playing a role,” he said.

Yahya Al-Najrani said he sometimes comes across a child wearing “strange clothes,” and chains and metal bracelets on his arms. “When I asked him his name one time, he said he was Bob Marley, the American singer.”