The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Butabika Mental National Referral Hospital has registered 1500 patients, the highest number of patients received at the facility in a year according to the Executive Director, Dr. Juliet Nakku.
On average, Butabika Mental National Referral Hospital receives about 500 patients annually. However, the facility had treated 1500 patients by September this year which is attributed to various factors including the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic, according to experts has caused anxiety among the public and worsened the situation for people with existing mental health issues.
Nakku who was attending a meeting to celebrate the World Mental Health Day, also reported registering more relapses from the communities.
She called for more funding for mental health saying the pandemic has exposed the need in the area.
Dr. Hasifa Nkwata, the commissioner in charge of mental health at the Ministry of health highlighted the urgent need for money, saying they recently registered a stock out of mental health drugs which prompted some patients to return to drugs they had moved away from. Government allocates Shillings 1 billion to mental health annually, which experts say is very little depending on the available needs.
Nkwata says they need more finances because of the increasing number of patients and the expected relapses since Covid-19 is affecting people’s mental health.
Dr. Hillary Giremaso from the Psychiatric Association of Uganda says there is need to invest in human resource if mental health services are to reach more people.
He says currently there are only 46 psychiatrists in the country attending to millions of patients.
According to World Health Organization, there is a reduction of funding to mental health in many countries as focus shifted to Covid-19, which exacerbated an already bad situation.
The WHO country representative, Dr Yonas Tegegn says government needs to make mental health an integral part of the pandemic and increase funding since the citizenry is more vulnerable due to the pandemic.
The experts have also called for more community engagements such that not all cases of mental health are referred to hospital.
Dr. Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, says they could adopt the method of telemedicine where some mental health services would be offered through phone, computer or over the internet.
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