At least 20 families in the Eastern Province have refused to take custody of their sons who have completed rehabilitation treatment at the Al-Amal Mental Medical Complex in Dammam, the hospital administration said. The cases vary from mental illness to drug addiction. The complex has requested the mediation of some government offices to allow the safe return of the patients to their families, said Muhammad Al-Zahrani, the hospital manager. The families still fear that their mentally-ill or drug addict relatives are not completely recovered and may pose a threat to themselves and the family once they are back home. But the hospital's administration said that they only discharge patients once they have recovered completely. The medical facility announced earlier that drug addiction cases have increased by 200 percent. It has requested help to increase the bed capacity of the hospital to 500. Until the year 2000, the complex had only treated drug addiction, but its operations expanded to also treat mentally-disturbed patients. Recently, new anti-smoking clinics were added to the facility.
