Mental Health Crisis. Why Africa need pay much attention.
More than 13 percent of the global burden of disease is due to disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and substance abuse.
Nearly three-quarters of this burden lies in low- and middle-income countries, due to extremely scarce health resources and investment. Many countries allocate less than 1 percent of the health budget to mental health.
Poor or non-existent access to evidence-based care also leads to the need for long-term care and increased costs of care not to mention the economic burden.
The global cost of lost productivity due to depression and anxiety disorders is an estimated at US$1.15 trillion a year. That means about 4.7 billion days of productivity are lost, According to Lancet.
Researchers have found enough evidence that these conditions are treatable. However, the estimates of people in sub-Saharan Africa receiving treatment are troubling.
There are compelling arguments that neglecting mental health will make it extremely difficult to attain many other targets. These include Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, HIV, malaria, gender empowerment and education.
Kimani Mbugua is a young Kenyan brought up in a humble family. He is a survivor of mental illness and has this to say, “You see people commit suicide and the first thing you say, how dare you. What people fail to understand is the torture and it happens in your mind.”
This therefore calls for investing in mental health and more importantly, making interventions and services accessible to all.
Researchers have recorded that political will and support from civil servants affect the proportion of GDP allocated to mental health. For Africa as a whole, government mental health expenditure per capita is $0.1.
Because of this, a multisectoral explanation is needed to convince politicians of the wider picture of mental health.
Further, advocates must take advantage of crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic to promote a long-term agenda for mental health, and lobby for major cross-government commissioned reviews.
There is need for African governments to invest in making training for and practice of mental health care attractive and relevant. This can be done by offering mentorship programmes, and use of digital and mobile technologies for delivering care.
Short re-skilling programmes that focus on evaluation and management of common cases in the community and outpatient setup can be conducted annually for students and healthcare staff.
A national survey on mental health conditions is crucial for every country because under-recognition of the prevalence and impact of mental health needs is one reason they do not get enough attention. Surprisingly no African country is currently doing one.
Lastly, there is a dire need to rethink health and life insurance and must reflect a move towards investing in preventative medicine and not the current curative policies.
Let’s invest in mental health to save a healthy and productive population that will define our economic growth.
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