BUNGOMA, Kenya – In recent years, rising concern has been about the number of people who deal with mental illness.
World Mental Health Week is a week-long event that raises awareness and support for mental health. It takes place annually from May 13–19.
Even as Kenya prepares to join the rest of the globe in marking this important event, a Kenyan social worker has shared with Y News the importance of mental health awareness and education.
Janet Kwendo, a mental health nurse based in the Western Kenya region, has been treating people with mental health issues.
During the mental health weeks, she moves around public institutions like schools sensitising the public about mental health.
“Most people, especially in the African culture, are yet to understand mental health. Most of us in the African culture still believe that mental health is associated with witchcraft, and so no one wants to be involved with the victims,” said Kwendo.
According to Kwendo, in most cases, people who suffer from mental health are neglected in society.
“It is until their situation worsens that they are taken to police stations or the hospital,” she said, adding that mental health is caused by many factors, including other diseases or even trauma or other issues in society.
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Kwendo also observed that most people don’t understand that living in difficult times occasioned by financial stress and hard economic times has resulted in mental health among some people.
“Mental health does not choose if someone is rich or poor. It can easily develop in anyone, despite their socioeconomic status. You might be rich, but you have domestic or marriage issues,” explained Kwendo.
While attending to a patient with mental health-related issues, Kwendo has to assess the kind of illness that particular patient is suffering from.
“Some of them are depressed, some of them are suffering from bipolar, and all these diseases are very common in our communities, bipolar, but they are yet to be understood. This is why you find that in some cases, we have people who kill others; some destroy properties, and when they are taken to court, they are subjected to mental assessment,” explained the health expert.
When she assesses such a person, Kwendo has to compile a report and indicate that the person is sick and might have done what they did unknowingly.
“When you are done with the report, you leave the rest to the courts to give their verdict. Ours is just to say that yes, this person committed these offences, but he or she did it as a result of mental illness,” said Kwendo.
Kwendo, who holds a postgraduate in psychiatric nursing and has previously worked at the Mathari Mental Hospital, says it’s high time that the government recruits more people to take up courses in mental health.
“There are very few people trained in mental health. Right now, it is not as it used to be where we could first be trained in diploma. Right now, so many people are going for courses like public health and avoiding mental health because they are afraid of dealing with it,” she said.
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She argues that mental illness is just like any other illness, and if someone is treated, he or she can recover from it.
“We have different types of treatment that we can subject these patients to, and they will get back to normal,” she added.
Kwendo reiterated that different types of treatment can be used to heal victims of mental health.
“I feel bad when I move around and meet people suffering from mental illness. Only if their relatives could take them for treatment, they could get healed and live with them at home, but due to ignorance, they have instead left them to roam around on the roads, markets, and sleeping in trenches,” she lamented.
With over 20 years of experience, Kwendo observed that by doing so, such people are exposed to a lot of risks, like being lynched by mobs or even being knocked down by motor vehicles.
“The government needs to treat the issue of mental health with the seriousness that it deserves because most people are suffering but they are not being supported to get back to their feet. Very few are taken to hospitals for treatment,” added Kwendo.
She also said that some parents/guardians hide children born with mental problems such as mental congenital or mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and other mental disabilities due to embarrassment or stigmatisation.
Kwendo revealed that when dealing with mental health patients, you have to be careful because they will study you to know if you like them or not.
“But if they understand you, then they are very cooperative, and they will be free with you, give you space to treat, and help them recover well,” added Kwendo, saying that she was motivated to take up a career in mental health because she always had a desire to help victims of mental health.
