(ERGO) – The only live-in mental health care centre in Baidoa is facing difficulty feeding and treating patients due to cuts in funding.
The director, Aadan Abdirahman, said the Community Mental Health Care Centre has not received funding for food from donors since 30 March.
Aadan said patients under medication had had their prescriptions reduced to just once a day, as the drugs needed to be taken with food. The centre is now dependent on inadequate support from patients’ relatives and some diaspora supporters. Donors used to provide flour, rice and cooking oil to enable the patients to have three meals a day.
The centre opened in 2016 and serves patients from Lower Shabelle, Bay and Bakool regions. There are 150 men, women and children currently housed in the centre.
Aadan said they have enough medical supplies for the in-patients as well as 78 out-patients who collect drugs at the centre daily. The South West State administration has provided medical supplies to the centre.
Abdulahi Bashiir Mohamed told Radio Ergo he carries food once or sometimes twice a day to his brother, who has been under treatment at the centre for almost eight months. His brother’s anticipated discharge in April was postponed as the doctors reduced his daily medication dosage and extended the duration of his treatment.
Somalis living in Australia and some local businessmen have filled some of the gaps but have been able to fund only one meal a day.
Save the Children’s representative in southern Somalia, Mohamed Haji Adan, told Radio Ergo that their support to the centre had ended and they had no further funding. Islamic Relief also used to support the centre.
The centre’s management said they have sent requests to aid organizations, the federal government, and business people for support and hoped not to have to close down.
