A local non-governmental organization has attributed economic collapse, unemployment and COVID-19 for the recent spike in mental health cases in remote areas.
This comes as the world commemorates Mental Health Awareness Week running from the 10th to 16th of May 2021.
In an interview with a local publication, the Secretary General of Multi Sparks Action Trust (MSAT) Sukoluhle Mathema said chronic poverty, effects of HIV and AIDS, economic collapse, unemployment and COVID-19 are some of the elements that have given rise to mental ailments in this region.
“Tsholotsho has hundreds of patients suffering from different types on mental illnesses that include schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and depression,” said Sukoluhle Mathema, the Secretary General of Multi Sparks Action Trust (MSAT), a non-governmental organization headquartered and based in Tsholotsho.
Mathema pleaded with the business community and well-wishers to extend a helping hand in raising funds to purchase drugs for psychiatric patients who cannot afford medication.
“As Multi Sparks, we want to compliment the government’s National Mental Health Strategic Plan (2019 – 2023) by organizing parallel funds to help people suffering from mental illness. We also appeal to the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Department of Mental Health to consider establishing a fully equipped psychiatric hospital in Tsholotsho,” said Mathema.
A survey conducted by MSAT also revealed that sometimes mentally ill people are taken to traditional healers who then do a poor diagnosis and perform unhelpful procedures and give out wrong prescriptions.
After noting this trend, the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA) has reportedly embarked on educating its members on referring of psychosomatic and anxiety disorders patients to formal health institutions.
