Need For Action on Mental Health in Africa
As the need to improve mental health care globally unfolds, Africa’s such needs have been left unaddressed. As Africa is known to have the youngest population globally, there are many cases of young people suffering from mental illnesses. Mental health problems are associated with man-made crises. This is propagated by lack of mental health services and awareness among Africans.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation worsened as life suddenly took a different turn. Unable to sustain their lives, most young people in Africa turned a blind eye to a hopeful future and ended up getting swallowed in stressful thoughts.
In Africa, young people aged 18-29 are at the prime of their lives as they try to establish a foundation for their future. Most of them are low-income earners, while others are starting businesses. We can say that they do not have a well-established source of income. This equates to the fact that most of them survive from hand to mouth.
With limited resources in Africa, young people were not ready for a wave that would blow them off their sources of income. As the reality about the pandemic unfolded, most young people lost their jobs, and businesses crashed. They thought that the situation would calm down within a short time, but it worsened. This has caused economic turmoil on young people as they cannot sustain their needs and wants. The labor markets have become highly competitive too. Most young people in Africa have been rendered jobless.
According to the African setting, young people in the said age bracket leave their homes to go to the city for greener pastures. This translates to them, bearing the burden of their parents and families. The sudden change of events has made them unable to sustain their families’ financial needs. Worse off, the virus dictates that you maintain social and physical distancing. You cannot get a chance to interact with other people and release financial pressure. Therefore, young people have sunk into depression and anxiety due to the overwhelming thoughts about their financial sustainability.
As African governments focus on containing the virus, they have forgotten the need to improve other medical services like mental health care. Therefore, people going through mental health issues have nowhere to turn to. Most of these young people have resorted to drug and substance abuse to calm their nerves, but this deteriorates their mental health.
The situation needs to be acted upon to save the youth in Africa. As we have to learn how to live with the virus, African governments need to develop initiatives to help young people grow their businesses and careers. COVID related opportunities and projects that the governments need to run should be accorded to the youth. Mental health care in hospitals should be offered for free or at an affordable price. African government should focus on improving the state of their country’s position in mental health awareness and seek to save as many young people as possible from depression and anxiety. The non-governmental organizations that aim at the youth should come up with projects to help the young people suffering from mental illnesses and create awareness on how to avoid being mentally affected.
As most young people find solace in social media, virtual mental health services should be established to impart knowledge on mental health and provide communication resources. This will combat a lot of suicidal cases and other disastrous impacts of mental health illnesses. As the infection cases continue to increase in Africa, scaling up mental health services in Africa is essential. To ensure equity and efficiency for these services, there is a need for proper coordination for the provision of the services. Toll-free mental health helplines can be established to make work easier for healthcare workers and those who need customized care.
In a nutshell, there is a great need to integrate mental health care into the pandemic response and coordinate it well across the continent. Mental health care services are vital, and they should keep on improving during and after the pandemic across Africa.