Shania Shayal Prasad 
[File Photo]
Some patients at the St Giles Hospital in Suva have been left behind not because they are untreatable, but because their families no longer want them.
Acting Medical Superintendent Dr Sheetal Singh says their goal is always to treat patients in the least restrictive environment and return them to their families when possible.
Dr Singh reveals that some patients have remained at the hospital for more than 20 years because their families refuse to take them back.
“There are many times we try to put them back into the community. We try to send them back to the family. But if the family is not supportive, he’s going to have relapse after relapse.”
She explains that without family support, recovery becomes fragile.
Assistant Health Minister Penioni Ravunawa says that successful recovery depends on whether communities are willing to accept them back.
“So it is important that when the medical professionals try to do their bit in calming the patient down to be able to go back home, the community as a whole must accept them because they are part of them and there’s no other place for them to go to.”
Ravunawa says families, villages and communities must understand their responsibility to support and reintegrate patients, as they have nowhere else to go.
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