‘Focus on preventive measures to address mental health’

THE government has challenged health stakeholders to focus on preventive measures to address mental health challenges following an increase in the number of people who face the problem.

According to the Minister for Health, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, international statistics show that in every eight people one person faces a mental health challenge.

She said Tanzania is estimated to have seven million people with various mental health diseases.

“In Tanzania, we are estimated to have seven million people with various mental health conditions, including that caused by drug abuse,” the minister unveiled this yesterday, during the first national symposium on mental health held in Dar es Salaam.

In the course, she said high lighted others mental health conditions that occur mostly in the country including depression and schizophrenia and several others which are caused by excessive consumption of alcohol and other drugs.

According to her, among the seven million people with mental health problems, more than one and a half million are living with depression, most of them being women. She stressed on investment in mental health by recruiting mental health experts in all dispensaries and health centres, as well as improving the health systems in the country.

“Let’s discuss how to establish wellness centres in every part of the country, so that the community can get medical care easily and also provide enough jobs for mental health and psychology experts,” she told the stakeholders in workshop.

Outlining the efforts made by the government in mitigating the challenges of mental health, the Deputy Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, Ms Mwanaidi Ali Khamis said the government has already prepared the national guidelines to provide psychological support in the country.

She said the guideline aims to enable mental health and psychology experts to provide services from an individual and to family level as well as society as a whole. She detailed further that the ministry in collaboration with the President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government has empowered 73 councils and committees for the protection and safety of women and children on the provision of psychological services to the community, especially during disasters.

Speaking earlier, World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative Tanzania, Dr Zabulon Yoti, unveiled that in 2019 World report on mental health, which launched in June this year shows that one in a hundred death globally resulted from suicide with more than 50 per cent of cases occurring before the age of 50.

He added that the productive group was vulnerable to mental health and resulted to death as well. ‘Depression is one of the