A young woman aboard a Modern Coach bus suffered a mental breakdown after arriving in Kampala, Uganda. The 32-year-old woman was travelling from Kenya through Kampala to Rwanda.
According to witnesses at the scene, the traveler seemed alright during the clearance process at the Kenya-Uganda border. However, she had a mental breakdown at the Kampala bus terminal and was seen loitering the streets with a baby aged around five months.
Other road users had to keep dodging her to avoid hitting her. According to local media reports, the Rwandan high commission office in Uganda said it “was doing everything possible to handle the matter.”
Mental breakdowns form a part of mental health issues that many people across the world face every day. Stress and anxiety are among the common mental challenges many encounter and they arise from various causes, including lifestyle problems and underlying medical conditions.
Kenya Launches New Guidelines for Common Mental Health Disorders
On September 9, 2024, Kenya’s ministry of health (MOH) officially launched the country’s first clinical guidelines for the management of common mental disorders, along with a Kenya-adapted version of the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme.
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The event saw Dr. Bashir Isaak, on behalf of the Director General of Health Dr. Patrick Amoth, highlight the significant mental health burden in the country. He noted that 42 per cent of individuals seeking primary care have severe depression and the national prevalence of common mental disorders stands at about 10.3 percent.
The launch also addressed the challenge of low mental health literacy among primary healthcare workers, which has contributed to many cases going undiagnosed.
The new guidelines and e-training aim to close a 75 percent treatment gap in Kenya by improving the identification, diagnosis, and management of mental disorders at the primary care level. They include comprehensive strategies for diagnosis, treatment, referral, and considerations for various populations.
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The WHO on Mental Health in Africa
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2022, more than 116 million people in Africa were already estimated to be living with mental health conditions pre-pandemic.
WHO also notes that few people in Africa have access to quality mental health care and has called for more efforts to be put into changing the situation.
On September 10, 2024, the world marked suicide prevention day, and the theme was “Changing the Narrative on Suicide” with the call to action “Start the Conversation”. According to the WHO, the theme targeted to raise awareness about the importance of reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations to prevent suicides.
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