Song and dance as Kisumu marks World Mental Health Day

Kodiaga Maximum Prison in Kisumu county was a beehive of activities on Monday as it hosted this year’s World Mental Health Day.

The day is dedicated to people living with mental illness.

The day started with four-kilometre procession by the participants from the Riat centre at the Kisumu International Airport roundabout to the correctional facility located in the Otonglo area.

Songs, dance, poems and skits rent the air as stakeholders, among them mental patients, took to the stage to create awareness and entertain the participants during the colourful event.

Kisumu Health executive Dr Greg Ganda said that mental illness, which is on the increase due to urbanisation, stress and economic hardships, needs to be addressed firmly and swiftly.

“You only need to open your daily newspaper to read about someone who has committed suicide, somebody beat up his wife, killed, burnt and then committed suicide,” Dr Ganda said.

He urged the partners and advocates who have tirelessly brought the mental health issue to the national limelight to passionately keep holding the flame aloft.

To achieve this, he said, the stakeholders should stop making mere speeches, but instead walk the talk by solving the problem at the primary healthcare level through early diagnosis.

He said that the county has taken the lead by identifying and early screening mental disorders before they worsen.

In this way, he said, they would be able to determine those who are at risk and are likely to develop mental illness.

“We want to ensure that next year when we shall be marking the next World Mental Health Day, we shall have screened 30,000 people,” D.Ganda said.

According to Dr Ganda, the county is working on establishing a fully-equipped psychiatrist unit at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Through early communal sensitisation and planning, Ganda said that Community Health Workers equipped with a screening tool would visit homes and households at the grassroots level to find out people at risk and in need of help.

In a show of commitment to tackling mental health-related issues, he said that the county has completed the refurbishment of Nyangoma Rehabilitation Centre in Muhoroni subcounty.

“We also commit that in the next five years, we must have a mental health institution in Kisumu that will cater for the whole Lake region,” he said, adding that they would partner with Lake Region Economic Bloc and the national government.

Tinada Youth Organisation director Roy Otieno said that they are focusing on integrated mental health rights education and campaigns among the marginalised families and youths in the lake region.

Otieno said they would achieve this through capacity building, support services, mentorship, demonstrated good practices and strategic networking.

The director said that they are collaborating with other stakeholders, including national and county governments to be at the forefront of combating mental challenges such as mental disability and mental illness.

“We help in reducing stigmatisation and discrimination of persons living with mental health illness including epilepsy and drug addicts and their families through a brain awareness programme,” Otieno said.

WHO estimates that more than 116 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa were already living with mental health conditions pre-pandemic.

A high suicide rate, WHO cautions, still remains a major concern, as are the exponential rates of alcohol use and abuse among adolescents as young as 13 years of age.

“Some 1.9 million people suffer from depression, and out of every six people who go to the hospital, five of them have mental health-related issues,” Nacada's Esther Okenye said.

She urged the Kisumu county to hasten the full operation of Nyangoma Rehabilitation Centre to swiftly assist with mental health-related issues as presently there exists no such facility within the locality.

Okenya also alluded to a partnership with Kodiaga prison to put up a similar facility within its vast compound to provide much-needed services to people who are in dire need.

“More often than not, what kills our recovering addicts are after care services. Suppose we could put in some money for championing after care services, especially those people who are being treated for substance-use-disorders. In that case, it will go a long way in firmly dealing with mental health issues,” she said. 

Speaking during the event, Western regional prisons commander David Koech said that they would strive to continue working closely with other mental health stakeholders to help in addressing mental health-related issues among its inmates and staff.

He appreciated the great assistance they have been receiving from the Jaramogi hospital management when dealing with mental health issues.

(edited by Amol Awuor)