07 Aug 2015

Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Madigele, has admitted that having mental rehabilitation services provided at S’brana Psychiatric Hospital may contribute to low intake of the services.

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday (August 7), Dr Madigele explained that mental rehabilitation services were provided at S’brana because there were no designated institutional rehabilitation centres in Botswana.

“Currently, outpatient rehabilitation services are provided to clients through our partner organisations,” Dr Madigele said in response to a question from Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi.

Mr Mmolotsi had asked if the ministry was aware that the absence of rehabilitation centres in Botswana and referral of people in need of rehabilitation to a mental hospital had led to many not taking up the service.

He said the Ministry of Health had not done any study to identify if there was low uptake of services.

Dr Madigele explained that construction of a comprehensive national rehabilitation centre was conceived as far back as NDP 8 and that the project was prioritised to be implemented in NDP 9, but that it could not be funded due to lack of funds. 

The project, he added, was again included in NDP 10, but again due to budgetary constraints, could not be implemented. Furthermore, he said rehabilitation has been identified as a priority in preparations for NDP 11. Ends