![]() ![]() Mustafa Hassan Dahir and nurse Maryam Hassan Dahir attend to outpatients at the mental health ward, said to serve approximately 150 regular outpatients, at the Hargeisa Group Hospital in the Somaliland capital, on July 29 2015. ![]() © 2015 Zoe Flood for Human Rights Watch Dr. © 2015 Zoe Flood for Human Rights Watch A female patient stands at the entrance of the women’s section of the mental health ward at the Hargeisa Group Hospital in the Somaliland capital, on July 29, 2015. As at other privately-run residential facilities for residents with actual or perceived psychosocial disabilities, patients are often chained for long periods of time. © 2015 Zoe Flood for Human Rights Watch A patient sleeps with his feet chained together at the Raywan private center in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa, on July 29 2015. © 2015 Zoe Flood for Human Rights Watch Relatives and friends seek to gain entry to the Hargeisa Group Hospital mental health ward, which at the time held around 40 male and 25 female patients, in Hargeisa, on July 29, 2015. © 2015 Zoe Flood for Human Rights Watch 35-year-old Abdi, who was held for two years at the Macruuf Relief Organization, where he says he was taken against his will by his family and shackled for 14 months, puts away clothes in the small hut he now lives in next to his family home, Hargeisa, on July 27 2015. “Sometimes if you refuse to take the medication or you become aggressive the guards beat you with a stick and slap you,” Abdi said.Ī male patient sleeps on a mattress in the open yard of the men’s section of the mental health ward at the Hargeisa Group Hospital in the Somaliland capital, exposed to the sweltering sun and other elements, on July 30 2015. “On admission I was prescribed olanzapine, and was on olanzapine for the whole time there, but the nurse didn’t explain why.” But he had no choice other than to take it. The center’s staff gave Abdi psychotropic medication but sought no consent from him nor offered any explanation about why he needed it or how it might affect him. “I was counting the days until I got out.” “It was very difficult to be inside all day long,” he said. As a result, his sister who felt she couldn’t care for him at home placed him in the center.Ībdi – like many others in Somaliland who are perceived as having a psychosocial disability, or a mental health condition – then spent 14 months shackled at the ankles in the center, locked inside for almost the entire time. Abdi’s family believed he was sick, maybe with a mental health condition, and they didn’t know what to do. Thirty-five year old Abdi spent 20 months in a privately-run residential center in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa. – Psychiatrist Doctor, Hargeisa, January 27, 2015 When they are discharged, they are not given any prescription and there are no outpatient services. The centers are not catering for people to return to society, patients are not getting any counselling or psychotherapy. Patients have been inside for a long time. ![]()
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