As a mental health advocate from Kenya, I am certain that a great number of mental health survivors are unable to afford medication or therapy services, or even both. This is because most communities still hold to the traditional ways of dealing with the condition. Biggest reason is lack of awareness for mental health at the community levels. Most people only become aware of how important it is when the illnesses finally manifests physically; which is always very tragic and undesired. To most of them, mental illness is a western thing, and any traits displayed by mental illness survivors are described differently by different cultures. This is because different groups have different lenses through which they look at mental health issues. The lenses are primarily directed by an interplay of the underlying culture, values, beliefs, and norms. It explains the high prevalence of stigma surrounding mental health in Kenya.
The aftermath of the inconsistent views regarding the topic of mental health is greatly felt by the survivors as well as the psychiatric industry. The country has considerably high costs for psychiatric services and medications and most of them are private entities. This is due to extremely low turn out to the few available psychiatric facilities which makes them become unaffordable to most people. In changing the paradigm , there is a need to create a decorum on the understanding of the concept so that people can have particular approach towards the problem. Due to the modern understanding of psychology, this can begin from everyone, who agrees to this view sharing any relevant information that they learn regarding mental health. That will be a great way towards stepping into the advocacy journey, which will greatly restore the state of mental health in the country.
It is also very important to note that it is impossible to have a universal approach for curbing mental health challenges. Even if the western psychology champions greatly on embracing the modern techniques, the understanding that different cultures understand the topic differently dictates that every approach can be right. Each approach will succeed or fail depending on how the questions of belief and values are addressed. This explains why approaches like talk therapy and counselling may work perfectly for a particular person but medication fails to work, and vice versa. The aim of mental health advocacy should therefore focus on advancing the understanding of the topic to an extent that people have shared understanding, regardless of the outcomes experienced during administering a particular approach. In this way, the advocacy journey can deconstruct the preconceived notions directed by pre-colonial cultures where science space was still very nuanced and vaguely understood.
Once there is a way out in the country to effectively reach out to communities with researched and scientifically proven information regarding mental health, and every information proven to them beyond doubt, the state of mental health within the country will greatly improve. This will increase awareness through preparing a safe space for mental health within our societies, just like that of physical illnesses. Through this way, every person undergoing some mental turmoil will freely seek help from professional services and employ relevant approaches like talking about their problems openly without fear of judgement. The only way to achieve this is to emotionally implore everyone to join the advocacy journey by sharing any important information to as many people. No one is immune to it, hence it should be an everyone’s thing.
Linked In / X; Dancan Odingo
