Gulu hospital receives between 30-33 mental health related cases daily, a psychiatric clinical officer at the hospital has said.
William Odur, a senior psychiatric clinical officer at the government health facility told Acholi Times on Friday last week that they receive between 600- 1,000 patients per month. This number, Odur said, includes both old and new cases.
Odur attributes the high number of mental health cases to the more than two-decades of war in the northern Uganda, gender based violence, defilement, drug abuse and relapses from patients already receiving treatment from the hospital.
Despite the overwhelming numbers, the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital has only six psychiatric clinical officers, four nurses and one psychiatrist.
According to Odur, three third of the mental health patients are former LRA abductees who have symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
He also observed that girls who were abducted and forced to act as sex slaves by rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) are still facing challenges copying with their traumatic experiences.
Statistics at the hospital indicate that between July 2013 to July 2014, Gulu Regional Referral Hospital which serves the greater north and even some patients from South Sudan treated 11,072 patients with depression.
Recently, Dr Nathan Onyaci, the Director of Gulu hospital said the government health facility has failed to attract psychiatrist doctors because the majority of them prefer working for Non Governmental Organisation which offer attractive remuneration.
A report released by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2011 shows that mental health problems cost countries 16 trillion dollars in lost productive hours, more than half of the total cost (30 trillion dollars) of non-communicable diseases.
