Dr. Edward Nahim, Sierra Leone’s famous psychiatrist, has passed away.”1
Dr. Nahim had worked for 30 years at the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital in Freetown, where he treated ex-combatants and hospital patients. He was the only trained psychiatrist in Sierra Leone, a nation that suffered one of the most brutal civil wars in Africa.
After the war ended in 2002, a mental-health survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 400,000 Sierra Leoneans suffered from mental illnesses such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, with less than 1 percent of the population receiving treatment 1. Dr. Abdul Jalloh has replaced Dr. Nahim as the new Specialist Psychiatrist and Care Manager at the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital
