African countries struggle to raise the resources required to provide mental health care for their populations, and most spend less than 1% of their health budget on mental health.
Man without access to mental health care. Photo obtained from Mental Health Advocacy For Developing Countries Mind Aid
Substantial trials confirm that practical, cost effective treatments for major psychiatric conditions including anxiety, depression, substance use and schizophrenia can be effectively and efficiently implemented in low-resource settings. The initial focus on closing this care gap in low income countries has been expanded in scope to focus also on promotion of wellbeing, prevention of risk factors (especially early in the life-course), and integrating mental health across sectors like education, livelihood and other areas of health.
ADSN through our constant efforts and aberration led by driven leadership and partnerships in the United Kingdom focuses on the challenges and solutions related to increasing the coverage of preventive, promotional and treatment services for mental health by 20% and identifying facilitators for implementation.
Helping families with disabled people access quality physical and mental health care.
- Strengthen community-based interventions by collaborating with civil society, religious and traditional healers, and empowering people with mental illness to contribute, e.g. in health service planning, community awareness raising and anti-stigma work. Ensure good links to more specialist services available at district level.
- Advocate for the inclusion of mental health in other programs (such as emergency response, nutrition/ food and water security, maternal health, education) as well as in other relevant system building blocks such as information systems, financing, multi-sector response. Given the huge demographic transition in Africa, mental health needs to be integrated into all programs and sectors targeting young people in particular.
- Promote greater respect for human rights and dignity during the treatment of people with mental illness, in hospitals, religious and traditional treatment camps and community settings. Put in place mechanisms to report abuse and hold offenders accountable, and promote more dignified and respectful language.
- Undertake awareness campaigns about stigmatization and suicide in workplaces, places of worship, schools and communities. Improve communication about mental health (e.g. by sensitizing journalists to avoid negative messages, and engaging with specific groups whose work intersects with mental health, e.g. police, judiciary, teachers, traditional healers). People affected themselves are central to this work, including young people, champions and social influencers.
- Stigma and attitudinal barriers; internalized parental and family misconceptions about children’s ability to learn; family resources and caregiving dynamics; financial supports; welfare provisions and eligibility criteria.
Many countries have made concerted efforts to strengthen human resources at a national level, including reforming cadres of practitioners, and applying principles of task sharing to increase capacity to deliver care by generalists in more decentralized sections of the health system.
For example; Republic of Benin, Cote d’voir, Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other countries have mental health policies that includes key roles for community health workers, nurses and others in delivering care. The availability of guidance on packages of care, and training guidelines like the WHO’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), enable application of good practice to make more efficient use of the few personnel available to provide mental health care.
Child sitting in wheel chair in support care center. Obtained from: ESA And AXA Working To Improve Healthcare In Africa