U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

CENTRAL AFRICA: Mental health to be given greater priority

NAIROBI, 31 October (IRIN) - Representatives from Burundi, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo and Rwanda were among
participants from 15 African nations who agreed to lobby their governments
to contribute at least 10 percent of the health budget for treatment of
mental illness, WHO announced. Most participants at a recent conference
organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Harare, Zimbabwe, said
their governments only allocate 1 percent or less of the national health
budget to mental illness.

Following four days of deliberations that also served as the regional
launch of the World Health Report 2001, participants agreed that mental
illness did not get the required governmental attention it deserves, even
though it affects more than 450 million people globally, WHO reported from
Harare on Saturday. For its part, WHO's Regional Office for Africa urged
governments and mental health professionals to advocate for the plight of
mentally impaired people worldwide - especially in Africa, where most of
the patients live.

The participants from the African countries and others from WHO
headquarters in Geneva called for the creation of organisations that could
help mental patients in their countries, much like groups who speak on
behalf of AIDS and TB patients. At present, only a handful of countries
globally have associations concerned with the plight of mentally impaired
people.

There was widespread agreement that people suffering from depression,
epilepsy and any for of mental disorders should be treated within their
communities or family environment rather than in psychiatric institutions.
Participants resolved to mobilise resources and technical aid in their
countries for the benefit of mental patients, and agreed to train a
multidisciplinary team for intervention in emergency situations. They also
called for the integration of mental illness into national primary health
care systems, the provision of support for operational research on
community-based psychosocial rehabilitation, increased interregional
cooperation and the development of national guidelines on community-based
psychosocial rehabilitation in disaster management.

WHO noted that in most countries worldwide, mental illnesses are on the
increase because of civil strife, armed conflict, poverty, economic and
social difficulties. Most of the victims are women, children (and child
soldiers in particular), the elderly, and displaced people.

For the complete World Health Report, go to http://www.who.int/whr/ [2]

[ENDS]

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[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001