Dear Psychologist/Psychiatrist of *Kimberley Hospital,
When you go to school, you go with big dreams in your head of what you would become one day. When you stand on the road to your new life, you choose where to go. You chose to become what you are now. You chose to help people, did you not?
Yet, the hospital hardly fills with people trusting you to guide them back to the person they used to be.
I am only one of many in the Northern Cape, in a small town, waiting for help – to be saved from ourselves by someone like you. And yet, no one shows up, gives us a call, or even checks in to ask how we’re doing.
Like many, I am drifting on my medication boat, hoping that you would spot us and come to our rescue. Yet, we are met with empty promises, and we drift past, forgotten and lost.
I was told to wait, that it would only be a while before my name would be called. And then, everything went silent.
You see, many die at the end of the line because they have been drifting so long that their boat started to rot and fall apart, while they waited for you to reach out a hand.
We are all known as state patients, the kind who are standing at the bottom. We weren’t asked to be this way, just as no one forced you to become a psychologist or psychiatrist at a state-run facility.
I’ve been forgotten many times in my life, often because I stood up for what’s right and tried to help others. This time, however, I needed someone to stand up for me and show me that I’m someone, that I’m not forgotten, that I’m meant to become the person I was supposed to be.
So far, you have let me and countless others down.
How many have died because you chose not to help, or to take your time? Weren’t you supposed to give hope instead of sorrow?
I am still here, hoping for a rescue that will never come, for a hand to hold onto in the dark. And yet, no one is reaching out.
Whoever is reading this, please think about why you chose this profession. Was it because of the pay, or because you care and would do the best you can to help, regardless of the state of your hospital?
Please remember us – those of us who didn’t ask for our mental health problems, who are waiting for a rescue that never comes. Remember how many you could have saved, if you cared enough about your job and the people around you.
Regards,
A patient you could have, or still can, save.
- *Kimberley Hospital is the former name for the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital, and many still refer to this hospital as “KH”.
