Saudi Gazette report TAIF — Some families of those incarcerated in Taif mental hospital have changed their contact numbers so as not to be pursued. Others have flatly refused to accept their own dear ones. This is the tragic situation of the 400 patients who have been abandoned by their families in the hospital commonly known as "Shihar". The oldest patient is a Saudi who has spent 48 years in the hospital. His family has completely discarded him refusing to accept him back or visit him in hospital. The hospital's management has recently launched a campaign aimed at changing the society's behavior and attitude toward mentally retarded people. The initiative is titled: "They are part of us. Mental hospital is not a suitable place for a psychological patients." To relieve the feeling of resentment and estrangement among its patients, the hospital has constructed a Ramadan tent to provide group iftar for the patients and the staff. Dr. Abdul Salam Al-Omari, the hospital's director, told local daily Al-Watan that a number of activities were being held to enable the patients to preserve social norms and traditions which they may be liable to forget because of their long stint in the facility. He said through "they are part of us campaign", the hospital is trying to spread awareness among society on how it should deal with its mentally and psychologically distributed members. "This is one of the important treatment methods. Society's criminal neglect of the mentally and psychologically impaired people and its wrong notions about them should end immediately," he said. The director said the hospital's department of religious awareness and community service is holding talks with the families to accept their sick members back into their fold. "Some of the families have strongly refused to come to the hospital to receive or even visit their sick members. Some others have given us incorrect data so there is no way we can contact them," he said. Al-Omari said the hospital has a program of "home care" through which it may visit the sick people and supply them with medicines right at their homes. "Once they have been discharged, there is no need for the patients to come back to the hospital for medicine. We will visit them at their homes to give the medicines hey may need," he said. Al-Omari said the hospital, the Kingdom's first and oldest psychiatric facility, has a capacity of 670 beds. "There are 227 patients from outs the Taif region who are doing well now.
Psychiatric hospitals have been constructed in their regions where they can go for follow up," he said.
