A Ghanaian psychiatrist, Dr Awakame Julius of National Health Service, NHS in the North Essex Partnership Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, has been reportedly sacked after he advised a patient to get help from TB Joshua’s 24-hour church TV channel, Emmanuel TV because she might be possessed by demonic forces, UK Daily Mail reports.
Dr Julius, according to reports, recorded medical notes diagnosing the woman as having a history of ‘satanic ritual abuse’ and said her issues could not be addressed by regular treatment.
He, thereafter, told his unidentified patient to watch Emmanuel TV, adding that ‘neither psychiatry not psychology would be able to help because there were special forces at play.’
The patient claimed Julius also told her to get ‘holy water’ before ‘switching off’ during the consultation at the health centre where he was treating the ‘vulnerable’ woman as an outpatient.
When community psychiatric nurse Martin Rowe later quizzed Julius whether his patient was possessed, he said, “She may well be” and claimed she had been thrown out of her local church due to her condition.
The doctor, reports allege, faced being struck off after he was found guilty in his absence at a medical tribunal of a number of misconduct charges.
The hearing in Manchester, was told he was made aware she had a ‘Dissociative Identity’: a personality disorder, and a ‘history of previous satanic ritual abuse’ before making a record of it in his notes.
But Awakame, formerly of Ipswich, then told his patient she had been ‘initiated through satanic ritual’ and wrote down a website address for her to access, reportedly claiming that her problems ‘could only be addressed by the church’ before he wrote down the name and suggested she wrote a book about her experiences.
The TV station, the doctor added, was “specifically targeted for people who experience similar situations.”
