A mentally handicapped man in his mid 40s had been put in a cage and denied medical attention for the past one year at his family home in Agona Ahanta just to avoid stigmatization. The man, named only as Brace, is reported to have broken free from his cage on Wednesday February 3, 2010 and allegedly went on rampage around the house demanding 50 cedis from his mother. He is said to have become violent when he did not get the money. His friend, one Akwasi, who narrated Brace’s ordeal to Joy News, said his friend was abused and acid allegedly poured on him by his brother. “Someone came to tell me that a very good friend of mine has been caged for one year, and I went to look at him and upon seeing him I wept bitterly. “He confirmed to me that his brother poured acid on him during a scuffle with him. He also told me a lot of things they have been doing to him for the past one year and certain things I can’t say now. I have now become an enemy to the family for making issue out of this,” Akwasi said. Even though the Agona Ahanta Police confirmed the story to Joy News, they were unwilling to give further information, saying only that the culprit is on the run and is being hunted by the police to assist in their investigations. Meanwhile a mental health expert, Dr. Dodoi from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, has condemned the incident and described it as “one of the classical condition" his outfit "tends to have problem with”. He revealed that in many instances family members tend to abuse mentally-ill relatives instead of seeking healthcare for them, and hoped the Mental Health Bill will help deal with such cases. “These are what the Mental Health Bill seeks to help. It seeks to deinstitutionalize mental healthcare so that we have mental health experts all over the country to attend to the people in the communities rather than wait in the mental hospital for them to come to us.” He said often times families subject mentally-ill persons to all sorts of abuses due to ignorance, explaining that most people believe such patients do not need medical care as they assign spiritual reasons to their predicament. For his part, Daniel Asare Kroni, programmes manger, Human Rights Advocacy Centre, said in the case of Brace, most of his fundamental human rights have been violated as stipulated under chapter five of the 1992 constitution. He also took on state institutions for showing little interest in cases involving mental patients, and appealed to the law enforcement agencies to seriously take this matter up. Story Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana