Mental health patients in one of the prisons in South Sudan. The patients are kept in prisons and always in chains - Credit- courtesy

Over 80 mental health patients are detained in prisons across the country due to lack of psychiatric hospitals, the spokesperson of South Sudan Prison Service has said.

According to Maj. Gen. Anthony Oliver Legge, out of the 88 psychiatric patients, half of them are in Juba Central Prison.

Legge says the majority of the mentally disturbed were taken to the facility by their families over fears they would cause harm in the communities.

He also cited the lack of psychiatric hospitals in the country forcing families to take their mentally ill persons to the facility.

Legge is urging families not to give up with mentally sick loved ones, but rather care of their well-being at home.

“At the moment the total number of mental health patients is 88 across the country and in Juba Central Prison alone there are 44 patients,” Legge told Eye Radio.

“Due to their health situation, the family brings their relatives who are sick to the prisons so that they will be well kept there.

“The family by all means should try their best to take care of their relatives despite their illness, it is very important for them. Sometimes family rehabilitation is more important than being taken care of in prison.”

Legge called on the government to build a specialized center that would give mental health patients the required assistance.

He says this will also help decongest the overcrowding at the prisons.

“The health authority at both the state and national government need to build a psychiatric hospital and then in future instead of bringing mental health patients to the prison they should be taken to the hospital,” he added.

Mental health professionals have often raised concerns about the number of persons with mental illness in jails and prisons across the country.

According to the World Health Organization, South Sudan has one of the largest mental health gaps in the world.

The World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health also says there are only 12 beds for mental health patients available at Juba Teaching Hospital, which according to the population count, implies that there is only 1 bed per million population available.

It said there is no single psychiatric hospital in the country.

Qualified mental health personnel are extremely scarce in the country with only three psychiatrists.

This leaves a huge mental health care gap for those in need of such services.