Zimbabwe is set to join the rest of the world in celebrating International Mental Health Day with the 2017 edition being held under the theme ‘depression.’
By Philemon Jambaya
Stakeholders who addressed a Medicins Sans Frontiers meeting in Harare on Monday outlined some of the challenges faced in the fight to reduce mental illness around the globe.
MSF Head of Mission in Zimbabwe Abi Kebra Belay appealed to the donor community to consider the community of those who are mentally challenged.
“The donor community should also consider this community, we need to fight this fight together for us to reach our goals, remember SDG #3,” said Belay adding that decimation and neglecting those who are not mentally fit continue to stifle efforts to address issues of mental illness in Zimbabwe and other countries.
Stakeholders also felt that the donor community is not sincere when it comes to issues to do with mental health care after MSF invited about 10 donors to the all stakeholders meeting with only one donor turning up.
Dr Emmerson Gono who spoke at the meeting emphasized the need for a friendship bench (more or less peer to peer) to help people, who are mentally ill in different communities.
“Friendship bench is an initiative which I started doing when I was studying for my Masters degree and it has proved to be effective in dealing with issues to do with mental health” said Dr Gono in a presentation.
Friendship bench was initially introduced in 2006 in Mbare as a community based approach to dealing with mental illness problems in the country.
