MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH IN AFRICA AND AROUND THE WORLD

 

The month of May is dedicated to raising awareness about Mental Health Issues around the world. Africa in particular has over the years seen a tremendous increase in mental health cases a worrying trend that should be addressed with urgency.

The need for a better coordinated response that brings together everyone on board is need to facilitate a turn around of the looing mental health crisis that is partly attributed to the effects off the economic and social down turn occasioned by the global Covid 19 pandemic from December 2019.

It is imperative that the responsibility of bearing the burden of creating mental health awareness is shared equally among all as it is a social, economic and above all health matter often overlooked in African society with the culture of stigmatization of people with mental health problem being the reality of the day.

Different African communities are bound by cultural practices that tend towards stereotypes about mental wellness as opposed to medical facts with have greatly impaired efforts to curb the problem. For the goal of awareness to be reached, its critical that knowledge on mental health is inculcated in the education system from the elementary levels where more life skills are shared on how to deal with issues such as depression.

It is also importing nothing that more invested is need towards addressing mental health with more training facilities for practitioners to deal with mental health as well as increasing hospitals, research funding and other facilities to fill up the HR and resource gap in the fight against mental health crisis in different African communities.