• Second Lady said mental health problems is a ticking time bomb among the youth
• She said it is robbing the country of many bright brains as youth commit suicide
Image: JOHN KAMAU
National and county governments should open rehabilitation centres to address mental health issues, Second Lady Dorcas Rigathi has said.
Dorcas said mental illness, and especially among the youth, is a ticking time bomb that requires serious and multi-sectoral attention.
“This [mental illnesses] is a pandemic that is robbing the country of many bright brains,” she said.
“Just the other day, we were at the University of Nairobi, where we learnt that some 50 students had committed suicide.”
She was speaking during a mental health awareness forum called Sikika Youth Fest held at Mwai Kibaki Convention Centre in Mount Kenya University, Thika.
She said there are concerns over high cases of suicide and killings in the country, adding that most result from mental illness.
Dorcas said mental illness should be demystified so patients can speak up freely without fear of stigmatisation.
“Rehabilitation centres will play a pivotal role in slaying this dragon as the affected will have someone and somewhere they can seek help,” she said.
The Second Lady said the government, through the Ministry of Education, should consider mental health awareness and teaching in primary schools, saying even children are prone to the menace.
She urged institutions of higher learning to also help fight the challenge, saying research indicates 75 per cent of mental illnesses manifest by the time teenagers are in college or university.
“Higher learning institutions should have counselling departments and a dean of students where students can be confiding issues they are facing at school or outside school,” she said.
“We’ve had cases where students sink into depression and develop suicidal thoughts and end up taking their own lives. This is a very serious matter because there’s no parent who would want to hear that their child committed suicide after investing so much in their education.”
She said she has a launched a campaign to champion the rights of the boy child, whom she said is usually the most affected by mental problems.
“Our boys are the ones indulging themselves the most in psychotropic substances and alcohol abuse,” she said.
“They are the same people dying in hoards due to mental illnesses. I am speaking up for the millions of young men in this country who are suffering in silence.”
Dorcas urged parents to step up, saying most have neglected their duties and that is why their children are sinking into social ills.
“Nowadays is like not before, when any parent would scold you if they found you doing wrong. Children are nowadays being pampered a lot, leading to moral decadence,” she said.
MKU co-founder Dr Jane Nyutu said the university has rolled out a psycho-education education programme targeting new learners.
She said first-year students receive mentorship and training to empower them with the requisite knowledge to sail through varsity life without sinking into mental anguish and other anti-social vices.
“The new students usually find it hard to settle and cope with university life because they are not under their parents’ supervision,” Nyutu said.
“They meet people from all walks of life. This programme is meant to salvage them from issues that may push mental disorders during their varsity life.”
The don said MKU has put in place structures that promote good health and the well-being of its students, staff and members of the community in line with the Sustainable Development Goals No.3.
“We already have a fully fledged student welfare department and a counselling faculty that is well structured and supported,” Nyutu said.
“We also have programmes to help, offer individualised counselling, peer counselling and referral-collaboration with mental health professionals.”
The Kenyan National Commission of Human Rights estimates that 25 per cent and 40 per cent of outpatients and inpatients suffer from mental health conditions.
The most frequent diagnoses of mental illness made in general hospital settings are depression, substance abuse, stress and anxiety disorders.