Promoting mental health to enhance peace in communities

Imagine a life of illness without support or understanding from your community.

Mental health is a critical aspect of peace and security all over the world.

When parents suffer mental illness or any other conditions children are also affected mentally.

“A healthy mind is a healthy body so the saying goes,” Robinah Nakanwagi Alambuya tells AWiM.

Robinah is the chairperson of the Pan African Network of People with Psychosocial Disabilities (PANUSP). In her childhood years, she experienced a mental illness that disturbed her peacefulness. Through dealing with trauma and loss she has felt called to help others who are facing similar hardships.

“Value yourself, take care of your body, surround yourself with good people and reward yourself,”  Robinah shares, “The human mind must be healthy.”

These were key reminders she would tell herself on the road to healing.

Robinah Nakanwagi’ s mental health challenges started when she was ten years of age. Born in Kayunga to Ezra Lubega and Margaret, Robinah’s mother suffered from a condition of neurological issues.

One time she experienced her mother’s seizure attack when her mother collapsed to the floor and bit her tongue. Robinah was so traumatised and from that day her life has never been the same again.

The following years of adolescence, Robinah would always break down and cry. Those around her failed to understand why she cried often. At times she told us, she would be having lunch and she would break out into tears.

Seeing her mother’s state from a young age affected her even whilst she attended boarding school. Robinah would wander away from class and keep to herself on the school fields where she would cry, remembering the tough moments she shared with her mother.

Her friends always tried to find out why she was crying but their efforts were unmet as it was too hard for the young girl to speak about what was affecting her.

Mental health is fundamental at every stage of development in life.

The stages include childhood adolescence to adulthood. Children have emotions too and can greatly be affected mentally. At times children adolescents and adults are misunderstood and end up being punished, mistreated and even imprisoned yet they are mentally ill.

During the time of her secondary school, Robinah’s mother got worse. The seizures became more frequent which greatly contributed to Robinah’s deterioration in class as she began to fear the loss of her mother.

“I couldn’t bare the thought and at times, I would stay in my bed and sleep for very long hours,” Robinah expresses.

Later on in the 1980s, when war broke out in Uganda, Robinah’s parents bid her farewell as she left home to attend Makerere University.

Her father told her: “I am not sure if we will ever meet again, everyone is running away to hide for security.”

University was the only safe place and so he cautioned her to stay there. Both her Dad nor Robinah could never have known that her years at university were going to bring a life without peace and security.

This statement set Robinah into depression.

Worrying about her parent’s safety and hers too, she started withdrawing from her friends and being alone again.

She wanted to commit suicide and subconsciously stopped eating. Sleep was now her solace to quieten her head from all the negative thoughts.

One day, she decided to renew her mind for restoration by reading the bible.

The holy book gave her a newfound hope. She made the decision to go back to the lecture rooms and focus on her education to attain her degree hoping for a decent life. She also decided to surrender her parents’ life to God as she didn’t know where they had gone into hiding or if they were even safe.

According to the World Health Organisation, there are a number of mental health disorders. These can be seen from a change in a person’s general behaviour. One out of eight people around the world lives with a mental disorder. Some of the categories include ‘Anxiety disorder’ which is where an individual experiences excessive worry, panic, fear and depression which includes feeling sad, irritable or empty.

Another is ‘Bipolar disorder ‘where one loses interest in life’s activities. In most cases, there is an increasing risk of suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorder, and Neurodevelopmental disorder among others. Such circumstances lead to disruption of peace and security as they affect an individual’s brain.

Psychologist Jacqueline Ahimbisibwe states there are a number of limitations to curbing mental health and thus peace and security in communities are being disrupted.

“A number of People are suffering from mental illness yet they are misinterpreted for moral failure, they also people who are killed, arrested and imprisoned wrongly during mob justice,” she explains.

One of the limitations the psychologist tells us is most common is ‘Living in denial’ where people do not want to accept that they are mentally unstable.

“Mental illness is a disease,” she emphasises, “Patients however refuse to take medication as they do not want to be associated with disease,”

She adds: “They then live unhealthy lives as they cannot be productive in society, communities and countries these disrupt the social economic system disrupting peace and security.”

Patients become stigmatised as they are devalued in society. Society regards them as a disgrace. Even when they are to travel outside the country, they are limited and this greatly leads to people rather not speaking out about the problem.

In Africa, Uganda in particular there is still a challenge of unprofessionalism among medical practitioners. As people struggle in the crumbling economy they go and do any job that will bring in money. They go into the psychology profession to make money even without thorough training thus the services are not effective for patients contributing to higher numbers of people living with mental illness. These unqualified psychologists misdiagnose patients and thus not curing the disease.

The internet as much as it serves to contribute to society in beneficial ways also adds challenges in the field of mental health as it encourages self-medication.  A number of people especially the youth because they fear to open up go and read online for self-medication. At times this leads to drug addiction and abuse. This then results in a number of problems like withdrawals that might lead to disease and death a major sign of peace and security.

The laws on mental health are not clear therefore there are no proper rules and guidelines yet on how to handle criminal cases of victims of mental health.

For solutions, Jacqueline says: “Addiction is a disease, not moral failure therefore people need love and support,”

She adds: “Instead Families reject their own people as they associate them with failure. Therefore families need to be sensitized and educated.”

Furthermore, parents who would have curbed this problem from home also end up dealing drugs as a source of income. Meeting the demands of the economy is also a disrupting factor for peace and security. By the parents selling these drugs, they are contributing to a non-healthy society.

For those that have mentally I’ll children due to stigma, some hide them indoors in unclean areas, and some even tether them to ropes thus acquiring no help, a typical state of hindering peace and security.

Women leaders come out to curb the killer disease.

The president of New Life Foundation, Mrs Susan Kwizera had a delegation to meet the speaker at parliament and said that they want the government to recognise autistic children so that they also get education on other children.

Kwizera noted that Autism is a disease of the brain. Children born in this state are many but yet the budgets are small. The government has tried to get information but a lot of research still needs to be done to support therapies.

The member of parliament for people with disabilities, Helen Asamo says there is a need for the government to understand that persons with disabilities need to be catered for so they can contribute to society. She also urges for there to be increased funding from international communities to make change possible across Africa.

Dorothy Nambi the executive director of DORNA centre for Autism situated in Ntinda requests that the government makes diseases like autism known through publicity: “By doing so, children have a better life, be able to express their rights and freedom and have peace and security in their lives.”

She appeals to parents to send these children to autism centres instead of hiding them

The government of Uganda has in place the persons with disabilities act where mental health victims are represented in order for them to be protected.

The national council of persons with disabilities has laws in place that involve respect and promotion of the rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities which include, the right to enjoy family life and the exemption of children from any form of torture or degrading treatment. Children will also not be subject to any form of medical or scientific research, harmful traditional or cultural practices, forceful sterilisation or discrimination in education services.

Promotion of health services

UNESCO emphasises that all children should be supported by Good health systems in the learning spaces if they are to thrive. UNESCO has a number of programmes brought forward to sensitise children with mental health and other disabilities to sensitive issues like unwanted pregnancies and sex education. By ensuring better learning and attendance in institutions UNESCO is accelerating the UN sustainable development goal 3 to achieve mental health and thus peace in the world.

The World Health Organisation Policy document involves plans on financing mental health facilities, training facilitators, use of medicines and many other programmes that will help countries around the world reach out to persons with mental illnesses. This will help curb mental illness diseases and reduce the number of deaths as well. This will boost a healthy population worldwide improving social welfare and good living standards.

Finally, it is important to note that catering to mental health not only helps people get well but is a contributor to growing a resilient population that will relate well with each other thus boosting countries’ social economic status, and international relations characterised by peace and security.

This will enhance peace and security in a way that survivors of mental health illnesses can be resourceful people, able to participate in society once they are supported.

This story is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM)/ UNESCO Peace and Security Journalism Programme