By SARAH MWANZA –
THE Mental Health Advocacy and Support Initiative (MHASI) has expressed concern with the rate at which Government is moving in enacting the Mental Health Bill.
MHASI president Dominic Chatewa said the bill had been on the draft stage since 2012 despite Government’s promise to expedite the process.
Speaking to Sunday Times in a telephone interview, Mr Chatewa said in order to safeguard the lives of mentally-challenged patients, there was need for Government to repeal the Mental Disorders Act  of 1951 and enact the Mental Health Bill into law.
He explained that due to failure to enact the Mental Health Bill, the country had continued to use the archaic Mental Disorder Act which was dehumanising, humiliating, degrading and discriminatory to mental patients.
From 2012 to to-date, a number of bills had  been drafted and enacted showing that less attention was given to finalisation of the Mental Health Bill.
Mr Chatewa also lamented the dilapidated infrastructure at Chainama Hills College Hospital and stressed the need to replace it with a modern hospital soon.
He said the facility constructed in 1959 and handed over to Government in 1965 was in disrepair and in need of major rehabilitation works.
Hospital Senior Medical Superintendent Margaret Chibowa said population growth had exerted pressure on existing infrastructure which had been designed to only carter for a limited population.
Dr Chibowa said this, coupled with the nature of mental illness treated at the facility, most infrastructure had broken down over the years.
Meanwhile, Works and Supply Minister Matthew Nkhuwa recently toured the facility and described the state of infrastructure as bad and promised Government budgetary allocation for refurbishment in 2018.