The World Health Organisation (WHO) has pledged to provide technical support to the Ugandan Parliamentary Forum on Mental Health (PFMH) to promote mental health in the country.
The support, WHO said, will involve aiding the PFMH review and finalise its draft strategic plan, develop a monitoring tool and a dashboard to enable the parliamentary forum to track implementation at the district level.
WHO also plans to assist the PFMH in organising capacity-building workshops on mental health for members of parliament.
The global health body made those commitments during a meeting held at the parliament of Uganda in Kampala, the country’s capital.
Despite the universal nature and magnitude of mental illness, the gap between the demand for mental health services and supply remains large in Uganda.
At 4.6 percent, Uganda is ranked among the top six countries in Africa in rates of depressive disorders, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).
However, relatively few people in the East African country have access to quality mental health services. WHO estimates that 90 percent of people with mental illness receive no treatment.
The serious gaps in mental health care are the result of decades of chronic under-investment in mental health promotion, prevention and care.
Only one percent of Uganda health care budget goes to mental health, data from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) shows.
Also, data from the International Journal of Mental Health Systems (IJMHS) shows that there are only five child and adolescent psychiatrists for more than 20 million children and adolescents in Uganda.
According to WHO, mental health issues account for 3.14 percent of the country’s total disease burden.
The WHO Representative to Uganda, Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, said mental health issues cannot be addressed by the Ministry of Health and WHO alone.
‘Mental health problems are driven by many factors, including environmental factors, drug abuse and now the [Covid-19] pandemic. There is a need for concrete action to ensure the good mental health of Ugandans’, Woldemariam said.
‘In addition to this support, there is a need to develop appropriate messages on mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention to combat stigma and discrimination; strengthen multi-sectoral collaboration and encourage partnerships with all stakeholders, including local and international NGOs, and prioritise teachers and students at all levels; to strengthen community-based mental health services by training primary health workers to promote the integration of mental health in primary health care’.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, called for a mechanism to provide counselling services to children before they return to school due to the stress, trauma and stigma caused by Covid-19.
‘The burden of mental health disorders is high in Uganda and [Covid-19] has further reinforced this burden’, Among said.
‘We need to seriously think about expanding mental health services at the grassroots level, as it is at the district level that the treatment gap can be adequately addressed’.
Source: WHO
Photo source: WHO
