A health milestone has been achieved

It is heartening to note that this facility has been provided for people that many of us ordinarily take for granted because they are generally pushed to the margins of our everyday existence.  Quite often, out of ignorance and lack of knowledge about care for people with psychiatric ailments, we tend to discriminate against them.

It is, however, pleasing that the Botswana government has been proactive in recognising the need for an institutional asylum for people with psychiatric ailments. Records show that as early as the 1930's, the colonial government had provided a psychiatric health facility in Lobatse. At independence, the Botswana government decided to carry the baton and took up psychiatric health as part of the national health plan. One of the landmarks in the development of the mental health care system was the establishment of the Mental Hospital in Lobatse.