This archive report was first published on 21 September 2019.
By Lukoye Atwoli, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean Emeritus, Moi University School of Medicine
Published on September 21, 2019
As scientists involved in mental health research, education, and care, we recently met in Cape Town to discuss the state of mental health care in Africa.
One of the pressing questions we tackled was the kind of care that is acceptable for our people in the context of limited resources. We have had to deal with assumptions that poor countries will remain poor forever, and will therefore never be able to provide services that meet standards set by rigorous research.
Our governments have accepted the thinking that they must generate 'cheaper' alternatives whose quality might fall short of what is acceptable, but which are 'at least better than nothing'. This thinking has percolated through all sectors of our economy that address social needs, and in health it has resulted in the institutionalisation of temporary solutions built on uncertain evidence.
One such approach is 'task-shifting', where lay people are trained for a few days or weeks in a complicated psychological treatment and then deployed to provide the service in areas where there are no mental health workers. This approach is potentially dangerous given the risk of wrong diagnosis and the failure to appreciate limits should things go wrong.
We must end the notion that African lives are cheap and can be experimented on without consequences. The launch of the African Global Mental Health Institute, with the mandate to collate what is known and to generate new knowledge, on mental health, is a step in the right direction.
