Mental Health Services Rekindling Hopes and Dreams
In most rural areas in Cameroon, individual and family dreams are usually shattered when a family member develops a mental illness. This lost hope and dreams are being rekindled with the availability of and awareness raising on the CBC Health Services Mental Health Services since 2015, by the SEEPD Programme in partnership with Australian Aid.
One of the beneficiaries of the CBC Health Services Mental Health services is Kum Cletus, a 23-year-old second year student of the Faculty of Health Sciences in the University of Buea.
Kum Cletus grew up as an orphan and was forced out of high school by mental illness. After several wrong diagnoses and failed treatment attempts in different hospitals, the family decided to chain him at home to stop him from moving aimlessly. This action by the family aimed at preventing him from being shot to death, a typical characteristic of the anglophone crisis rocking the two English speaking regions.
On the advice of neighbours, Cletus’ family resorted to traditional treatment. After going to several tradi-practitioners, all Cletus recalls is chains and merciless beatings. “These scars you see all over my body resulted from the beatings”.
Frustrated with the outcomes of the treatment, the family brought him back home. It was at this time that one of his teachers referred them to the Mbingo Baptist Hospital mental health department. This was to be the turning point in Cletus’ life.
According to the CBC Health Services Mental Health Supervisor, Ngwen Frankline, Cletus who was brought in chains was diagnosed of bipolar affective disorder. Frankline revealed with satisfaction that Cletus responded positively to treatment within the first three months. In the fourth month, he went back to school after being out for two years. The mental health nurse added that Cletus’ recovery has been steady. At the time of this report, he was considering weaning him off medication.
Cletus confirms that he is now stable and he can’t wait to stop taking drugs which he has taken for the past 4 years. “I am now a very happy and ambitious young man. I imagine how my dreams could have been shattered because of my health” Cletus laughed as he explained.
Cletus and his family so appreciate his treatment outcome that they reverence the CBC Health Services Mental Health Supervisor. “Frankline is my second god because if not of him I could have ended up on the streets or shot dead; he occupies a special place in my heart and that of my family” says Cletus. Cletus is also grateful to all who contributed towards his treatment including his uncle, family and CBM. He wonders aloud what could have become of him if CBM did not facilitate the kick off of mental health services within the CBC Health Services. He says he is a strong young man pursuing his dreams of becoming a Medical Laboratory Scientist.
Cletus’ story is one of hundreds of beneficiaries of the CBC Health Services Mental Health department, thanks to its collaboration with Australian Aid through CBM.