MOH turns to community mental health as COVID-19 exposes crisis

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |   The Health Ministry plans to introduce a new strategy where health workers will offer mental health services at the community level similar to the model of Voluntary Health Teams-VHTs. 

Apparently, mental health services are largely a preserve of regional referral and national referral hospitals.  In the Ministry of Health hierarchy of service delivery, VHTs are categorized as Health Center I charged with providing simple services such as information on disease prevention, nutrition and contraceptives. 

This will now be replicated in mental health services where individuals will be identified in the community to look out for people in need of mental healthcare and offer them simple services such as counseling or linking them to care.  

Dr. Hafisa Lukwata, the Mental Health Focal Person disclosed this on Tuesday afternoon as they marked the belated World Mental Health day, which often commemorated on Oct 10th annually. According to Dr. Lukwata, during the lockdown and its aftermath, a lot of relapses were recorded and a number of people developed mental health issues.   

She, however, said linking the cases to care became a problem and allowed them to progress to advanced stages yet the disease could have been treated easily when handed early enough. As a quick fix, she said they have so far strengthened lower facilities such as Health Center IIIs to offer the care as they wait for peer support teams to be streamlined.            

As this is happening, Butabika hospital has recorded the highest number of inpatients with mental health issues this year. The hospital director, Dr. Juliet Nakku, says they recorded 1500 patients and yet they see an average of 500 patients annually.   

She said the numbers kept bulging as the government eased the lockdown where they recorded a lot of relapses for those that had been on treatment but couldn’t access drugs at the height of the lockdown.  

For her, a lot more effort is needed in ensuring that those that need mental health care get it to avoid a crisis. One of the key issues she says is awareness, which explains why they commemorate the mental health day. 

However, Lukwata said there have been recommendations for the annual event to be aligned with the global commemoration, but says Uganda can’t have two major events around the same time because of the Independence day anniversary celebrations.   

During last year’s commemorations, Lukwata said they had started on advocacy to push the law and order the community to stop referring to people who succumb to suicide as those that have ‘committed’ suicide.    

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