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Newsletter
Vol. II, No. IX.
Twenty First Issue,
November 2005
OBITUARY
DR.OSAMA M EL RADY
1930-2005
THE FOUNDING FATHER OF MODERN PSYCHIATRY IN SAUDI ARABIA
Dr. Osama el Rady died last October 30th 2005, the 27th of Ramadan, following long and courageous struggle with illness. He was 75. He was buried in Mecca, where he was laid to rest. The funeral was attended by members of the royal family and his friends, his sons and relatives.
Dr El Rady was born in Mecca in 1930. He spent his early schooling in Cairo and continued his university study also in Cairo where he earned his MD from the school of medicine at Ain Shams University.
He received psychiatry training in Beirut under the auspices of WHO in 1965. He earned his membership of the USA board of psychiatry in 1982. In Saudi Arabia,
back in the fifties, psychiatry as a branch of medicine was undoubtedly, at an inferior state. There was no psychiatric hospital; mentally ill persons were housed in various residences without organized treatment program. When the Shehar Mental Hospital in Taif was established in the sixties 1962; this 1,500-bed Hospital, located in the rugged mountains of the western section of the peninsula, near Mecca, was the only mental hospital serving a population of about six million Saudis then. It sank to a deplorable condition and eventually was deserted by many patients.
A remarkable transformation (roughly from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century) was brought largely through the efforts of Dr. Osama al Rady, who was an APA member.
Since he became the director of Shahar Mental Health Hospital as well as- being responsible for all psychiatric units in the kingdom, in the early seventies, significant changes followed in rapid succession, with a definite shift of emphasis from the concept of mental illness to that of Mental Health.
Firstly, the administrative body planning the psychiatric facilities in Saudi Arabia became the “Mental Health department, in addition to the entirely custodial care of the past, extramural psychiatric services came to the forefront.
Secondly, the existing mental hospital was improved from a rigid Custodial institution to a flexible therapeutic community.
Thirdly, many psychiatric out-patient services were established in various cities all over the kingdom, thus breaking through what seems to be an impenetrable, exclusively, intramural concept of mental illness.
One of the basic problems which he met when he assumed responsibility of Mental Health was a shortage of psychiatric personnel.” There were not many psychiatrists in Saudi Arabia. He suggested a plan that would train general practitioners who were plentiful in Saudi Arabia, at least compared to a dozen of Mental Health professionals in the whole of the country. The curriculum of a post graduate diploma in psychiatry and neurology was brain stormed by top World psychiatrists from the US, Europe and the Arab World.
The programme was staffed by eminent psychiatrists in UK, USA, Egypt and Pakistan. This programme paid off/and helped to alleviate a severe shortage of psychiatric personnel.
Dr. El Rady was fully aware that psychiatry was a Western import to the Muslim World. As a pioneer Muslim psychiatrist he felt that for psychiatry to work more effectively in the Muslim World, all aspects of the psychiatric process have to be adapted to the Islamic cultural context. Thus, together with Dr’s Gamal Abou El Azayem and Dr Rasheed Chaudry, they helped to establish the World Islamic Association for Mental Health (WIAMH) two decades ago to promote these efforts. WIAMH first congress took off the ground in Lahore, Pakistan in December 1986 where it was inaugurated by the late president Diaa el Haq. He was elected as the founding president of WIAMH. Since that time many congresses were organized by WIAMH in Egypt, 1994; USA. 1998, Bosnia, 1999; Egypt, 2002; Italy, 2003; Malta 2003, Egypt, 2005; UK, 2002. Before he died he helped to organize a WIAMH symposium entitled. “Recent Developments in Culturally Appropriate Mental Health Care Among Muslims.”
During the XIII World Congress of Psychiatry, held in Egypt 10th-15th September 2005 his health status did not allow him to attend and give his contribution. In general he will be remembered for his efforts to uplift the morale and status of psychiatry in Saudi Arabia and for its humanization there. He will be credited as a pioneer in the field of Islamic culture and psychiatry in which he initiated major researches. He is a member of the World psychiatric association, American Psychiatric Association, and Arab Psychiatric Association. He also is credited for writing the Mental Health act pinpointing the rights of psychiatric patients according to Islamic jurisprudence.
The last years of his life were hard. He had strong faith in Allah. But true to form, he remained dignified and undefeated. His severe illness did not prevent him from coming from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to attend meetings of WIAMH board. When i asked him about his state of health his answer was: “do your best and leave it to Allah”
In recalling this tall and dignified member of the mental health profession, I feel sorrow to learn of his passing. But it gives me great pleasure to remember as we walked together in the streets of Cairo. Mexico, Lahore etc. In international congresses he always discussed such questions as the relationship of Islamic Culture to the diagnosis prognosis and treatment of mental illness. All his work was performed by a sensitivity that can come only through an understanding of and sympathy with mental health patients whom he dwelled with, for so many years.
Dr. El Rady is survived by his wife and eleven children. Two of his sons are eminent physicians and a third is preparing for the Canadian membership of royal college of physicians.
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