When a father shoots his son over a television set and a mother burns the finger of her son over stolen coins, or even a woman kills her husband over rat meat soup, there is no doubt that we are faced with a rising trend of mental health cases.
In the past year, the statistics although not available to us now, should indicate that there have been surges in such weird incidents, some fatal.
Some of the incidents have been so weird that judges were constrained to order psychiatric evaluation of suspects.
Even those who dump their freshly delivered babies on refuse dumps should be suffering a certain level of psychiatric challenges, perhaps post partum.
Our point is that mental cases, like other health challenges, are on the rise in our communities without our detection of the phenomenon.
We shall continue to witness such weird incidents, some of them fatal because, we, as a country, are living in denial of the development.
Indeed our denial stems from the fact that mental shortcomings for us should only manifest themselves nudity.
Even the assortment of disorders such as compulsive, obsessive disorders as they occur in some persons, require psychiatric interventions.
The Mental Health Authority requires resources to undertake a massive education and awareness creation exercise about symptoms of psychiatric challenges and the germane action to take such as turning to the mental health specialists.
Had the neighbours of the 30-year-old man who hacked his father to death known that the mood changes in the suspect required psychiatric attention, perhaps the fatality which followed his attack on his father would not have occurred.
It was only when the father was killed by his son that such neighbours narrated what they had observed about the suspect who is now in the hands of the police.
We appreciate the fact too that in our communities, neighbours stand the risk of being condemned when they raise red flags about persons requiring mental evaluation and treatment. This is another symptom of ignorance about mental health.
Many women have lost their lives at the hands of husbands who were suffering psychiatric challenges, situations which could have been obviated had the knowledge about symptoms of such situations been appreciated by neighbours and even family members or even society at large.
With the necessary education which we think should be jointly undertaken between the National Commission of Civic Education (NCCE) and the Mental Health Authority, many lives would be saved.
We need accelerated education about mental health and the fact it is curable.