Sociology of Mental Illness: the Study of the Un-institutionalized Mentally Challenged in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Nigeria
paper results from approximately several years of observing and studying the mentally challenged people who have been labeled “mad”, insane or mentally ill. The study also involved having discussions with the “sane” as a way of getting more information about the targeted group. Despite the fact that inquiring about these people usually elicited some kind of curious gaze and expressions from those questioned, our informers were aware of the purpose of our inquiries. Surprisingly, respondents seem to know almost all the mentally challenged people roaming the streets of Abeokuta. For example, discussions by one of the researchers in a beer parlor, patronized by taxi drivers, mechanics, welders etc, were revealing. We were informed that Casa was deported from a foreign university, when he developed mental problems and Talia was the female beer parlour owner’s primary schoolmate and childhood neighbour. Please not that all the names used are fictitious invented for the purpose of this study and cannot be traced to the participants.
A seven item questionnaire which served as the instrument (henceforth referred to as guide instrument) for selecting the subjects for this study was administered to twenty randomly selected university students. The area of focus is Abeokuta, the state capital of Ogun State, in the southwestern (Yoruba speaking) area of Nigeria. By virtue of the fact that these people roam the streets, it is assumed that they are either from very poor or what we have chosen to call “economically challenged” backgrounds or families and must have been deserted. This assumption is sanctioned by the fact that two public neuro-psychiatric hospitals and a community (out patient) psychiatric centre exist in the state capital which provide both the in and out patient cares for a fee. The normal practice requires that family members or caretakers deposit up to thirty thousand (N30000.00) Naira (or about two hundred and fifty US dollars) to cover boarding and medication for one month. Both the traditional and spiritual healing centres also exist in addition to the Western Orthodox mental health care facilities (Shopeju, 1983). Also and interestingly, the Yoruba people patronize any type of treatment regardless of their origin and cost, the major determining factors are the perceived efficacy of the type and that the sick recovers (Shopeju, 1983) – embedded in this is the hope that the sick will eventually recover from the ailment. As stated earlier, regardless of the approach chosen, treatment or care requires some financial commitment and there seem to be no guarantee that there is an end to this and other forms (social and psychological) commitments. Despite the fact that many of them still go home to sleep and some family members monitor and sometimes ensure that they are fed and have clean clothes, some family members expressed their frustration in that caring for these people is time and money consuming and traumatizing. Based on the above we are inclined to assume that: (a) the cases have been considered hopeless by their families; (b) they were simply abandoned because their caretakers lacked the funds to start or continue to pay for psychiatric care, whether orthodox or traditional; (c) the families or caretakers lacked the ability and capacity to continue to care for them.
The sample for this study was restricted to twenty-five subjects chosen using the guide instrument from every odd number mentally challenged persons encountered by driving through the major streets. Incidentally, the subjects either seem to prefer frequently used streets or feel less threatened to ply public/commercial sectors (we are inclined to adduce the later as the determining factor). For example, we observed that the residents of housing estates, where the majority of the middle and upper income classes reside, ensure that they (subjects) are discouraged from roaming their streets by physically removing them. In fact, they are often labeled as people who pretend to have mental problems during the day but become agile criminals at night (garnered from the researchers’ experiences at meetings in their neghbourhoods). During the period of the study, three of the subjects disappeared to reappear elsewhere, a search was always conducted and they were replaced only when they could not be located. Three fell into this category. Method of identification of each entailed assigning numbers and fictitious names while also keeping notes with the description of the chosen subjects. The major identification factor is the physical appearance of the subjects. The following coded (0 for low rating and 1 for good/high rating) features were used to determine the suitability of subject for the study:
Stage A:
(1) mode of dressing – dirty/rags=0, clean/not rags=1;
(2) condition of hair- dirty/dreadlocks=0, clean/dressed=1;
(3) footwear- no shoes/not