People With Mental Disabilities Face Serious Abuse

 At Heavenly Ministries Spiritual Revival and Healing Center, some people with presumed mental disabilities lived in buildings with cubicles for each resident and were chained to walls. They could not leave the cubicles without permission of the staff at the prayer camp.

Hyderabad, India, 17th May 2013 – People with mental disabilities suffer severe abuses in psychiatric institutions and spiritual healing centers in Ghana, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Ghanaian government has done little to combat such abuse or to ensure that these people can live in the community, as is their right under international law.

The 84-page report, “‘Like a Death Sentence’: Abuses against Persons with Mental Disabilities in Ghana,”describes how thousands of people with mental disabilities are forced to live in these institutions, often against their will and with little possibility of challenging their confinement. In psychiatric hospitals, people with mental disabilities face overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. In some of the spiritual healing centers, popularly known as prayer camps, they are often chained to trees, frequently in the baking sun, and forced to fast for weeks as part of a “healing process,” while being

The report also highlights the challenges of people with mental disabilities who live in the community, who face stigma and discrimination and often lack adequate shelter, food, and healthcare.

“The government needs to take immediate steps to end abuses against people with mental disabilities in institutions, prayer camps, and the community,” said Medi Ssengooba, Finberg fellow at Human Rights Watch. “The conditions in which many people with mental disabilities live in Ghana are inhuman and degrading.”

The report is based on more than 170 interviews with people with mental disabilities in the country’s three public psychiatric hospitals, and in eight prayer camps and the community; family members; healthcare providers; administrators and staff of prayer camps; government officials; and staff members of both local and international organizations working in Ghana.