13 Mar 2025

Sbrana Psychiatric Hospital (SPH) has scheduled a series of kgotla meetings  in Lobatse to address social ills affecting members of the  community.  The entity’s services  include psychology, dietetics and occupational  therapy clinics amongst others which could be accessed by those in need of.  The hospital’s Public Relations Officer, Ms Leina Ntumo said during a Botsogo Pitso meeting  held at Peleng ward in Lobatse on Tuesday, after the ministry’s realised through customer’s direct complaints that their employees might not be interacting well and effectively with client hence the pitso.
The initiative will enable the them to get the community’s reviews, concerns and past service experiences.
She said their services include the Substance Use and Drugs (SUD) clinic which served those troubled by drug abuse.
She said they offered counselling services by social workers in regard to social issues as well as psychiatrists who were SPH specialists.
Ms Ntumo hsaid the occupational therapy clinic served long staying patients.
“These are Special Presidential Detainees. The unit handles special detainees who committed crimes. They get assessed and when found to have not been fit at the time of committing crime, they serve their crime under the watchful eye of SPH,” she noted.
Ms Ntumo said that, the hospital kept them busy through offering distance education on various developmental programmes such as carpentry, welding and tailoring.
The chief nursing officer at SPH, Ms Mavis Motshelanoka, acknowledged that, while customers were free  to complain about quality of services provided, the solutions could come from both parties, the community and the hospital as they were both involved.
“It is important that we collaborate and form strong partnerships to facilitate provision of quality health services,” urged Ms Motshelanoka.
To ensure that SPH was a better facility that served its customers well, the community should first understand that it was a referral hospital, therefore patients should access the services from lower health structure first, she said.
“However, sometimes it happens that patients come directly to the facility and in that case they are never sent back,” she said.  
Ms Motshelanoka said SPH admitted all patients regardless of their mental status, emphasising that   not everybody admitted at the hospital  were mental cases.
The facility offers all round physical attention to patients.
Reflecting on some factors leading to psychological challenges, she said it was important to introspect on how families related within themselves.
However, she admitted that some parents sow discord through imbalanced parenting.
She said quite often some parents disregarded their children through reasons best known to themselves.
She pointed out that these might not be taken well by those who feel disregarded thereby leading to unaddressed emotional issues that later required counselling.
Therefore, she urged families and parents to learn to regard all children in the family in an equal way and appreciate that each one of them was gifted differently.
In response, most residents decried lack of compassion, family support and sense of responsibility over those afflicted.
One of the residents, Ms Vinolia Nawa, expressed gratitude over SPH’s outreach and suggested that Lobatse leadership, inclusive of the area councillors, Ward Development Committees (WDC) and hospital staff, establish a plan together with community volunteers for purposes of visiting households as a team since SPH had an all-round specialty.
“This is due to overwhelming problems for many in the community, who do not find it easy to come out for counsel due to a number of reasons,” she said. Mr Benjamin Mosatlane suggested that law enforcing agencies such as the Special Support Group (SSG) should camp in Lobatse to help combat drug abuse and some social behavioural ills.
Some residents decried the hospital’s prolonged processes and procedures in assisting them and further requested the processes to be sped up.
They cited cases of mentally challenged patients whose families end up tying them up to avoid endangering situations.
Botsogo Pitso is a Ministry of Health’s initiative that offers health facilities a platform that seeks to address customer complaints, as well as giving communities a chance to help review the facility’s health services and give feedback. ENDS