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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, [email protected]

THEY say real life begins at 40 but for a 91-year-old Ingutsheni Central Hospital patient, whom hospital staff have named ‘Headmaster’, that was the time he began his 51-year odyssey of solitude at the institution.

Light in complexion and still looking sharp despite having difficulties speaking, Headmaster (his real name known but protected), was brought into the institution on August 29, 1974, by his parents who said he tended to wander about aimlessly and sometimes being violent to anyone he came across.

That was the last time he was in the company of his parents. Yet, according to hospital staff, Headmaster’s records show that he is from Mzilikazi suburb in Bulawayo.

He is now the longest-staying patient at the institution without any visitor after a 104-year-old immigrant worker who died in June last year spent 68 years. 

Headmaster

The late immigrant worker is still awaiting a pauper’s burial, eight months after his death. His body is at the United Bulawayo Hospitals.

Saturday Chronicle visited Ingutsheni Central Hospital this week and spoke to the institution’s professional and friendly staff, led by the Clinical Director, Dr Wellington Ranga. 

The interview was held at the hospital’s public relations office, led by Vongai Chimbindi with Remekedzo Mufuka from the Department of Social Work, also present.

Dr Ranga said there seems to be some stigma at being associated with Ingutsheni Hospital in one way or the other.

“This is why we even have taxis servicing the Mpilo and UBH routes but you never hear touts calling out for passengers going to Ingutsheni. It’s because people somehow don’t want to associate themselves with the institution yet it’s just a hospital where unwell people get treated,” said Dr Ranga.

The news crew was taken through the process of how a patient is admitted until discharged.

“People with mental health challenges can’t be admitted on their own, their admission has to be confirmed by other people who are independent from us. 

“When you get a mental health challenge, you don’t have insight into what will be happening to you. So, most people with mental health issues deny that they have got a problem,” said Dr Ranga. 

Remekedzo Mufuka

“The patient goes through what we call certification, where other independent people check you, confirm, and concur that there is a mental health issue. This has to be done at a different health facility, not here. A form is then completed, and the people accompanying the patient have to also consent,” he added.

Dr Ranga said the discharge process starts at the point of admission because someone has to get the patient admitted and when one is set for discharge hospital staff check who got them admitted so that they are informed about the impending discharge and they come to the hospital to collect their relative.

“When the patient goes home, it’s not a discharge straight away, there is a process we call leave of absence, remember mental health issues are not predictable hence we give patients the benefit of the doubt to go home and see if they can fit into the environment so that relatives also assess and see if they are comfortable. If there is a challenge, the patient can always be brought back,” said Dr Ranga.

“As you probably would know, when people come to Ingutsheni Hospital, it is the last resort, they would have tried everything and their patience would have been stretched to the limit.

“So, they come with that mentality and that is what we get from a good number of people who bring  their relatives here and after that, they vanish into thin air.”

Dr Ranga emphasised that no one is released on their own, regardless of whether the patient knows where they stay because some people would either give the wrong contact details or choose not to come and collect their relatives who would have been certified fit to go home. 

In such scenarios, he said staff from the Department of Social Work visit the concerned relatives. However, there seems to be a stigma associated with any interaction with Ingutsheni Hospital.

“Some patients can give you the correct address and that is when the home visit comes in where we do a home assessment and also try and understand why they came to ‘dump’ their relative at the hospital and sometimes why they didn’t visit the patient,” he said. “What generally causes relatives not to come back is that they don’t have insight into what the patient will be going through because, in their minds, they will be still seeing someone who did horrible things, which may even include rape or murder before they brought him to Ingutsheni Hospital. Yet the person would have changed,” said Mufuka.

She said mental illness can be like any other disease just as someone may get into a hospital suffering from malaria but can’t be ill perpetually as they will be treated hence the reason they came to the hospital.

Mrs Vongai Chimbindi

Ingutsheni Central Hospital public relations officer, Chimbindi, said some of the patients who have not had visitors are those who were immigrants working on farms and after the farm owners left, they were left with no one to look after.

“Some of course are considered outcasts either by the family or the community for varying reasons, which may include but not necessarily so, what they may have done as a result of their mental condition,” said Chimbindi.

At the St Luke’s Psychogeriatric Ward, where Headmaster stays, there is a former guitarist with a renowned music group whose songs illuminated the music industry in the 1980s until the early 90s, as well as a former magistrate.

 Ingutsheni Hospital was established in 1908 as an asylum where prison guards were the original caregivers. In the 1940s psychiatry services were established but the services were racially biased and at independence radical changes were made.

The female ward-St Mary’s 1 carries a significant number of substance use patients as well as victims of substance use including survivors of gender-based violence and sexual assault.

The major substances used include alcohol, cannabis, crystal meth, and cough mixtures. The other wards are also occupied by patients who developed chronic illnesses, which were complicated by substance use and these are Mzilikazi 2 and Dawson Ward.

The Mambo Ward is occupied by patients who committed serious crimes like murder and rape whilst mentally ill (including substance use-related crimes).

Those at Mambo Ward are a danger to society and their families are not keen to receive them back and are thus kept for life.