Mental Illness; A Silent Killer!
The stories are too many to ignore.
Just recently, a Ghanaian man went viral after the world learned that his family had secured his leg around a log with nails where he had stayed for over 2 years because he was psychotic.
A Peruvian man’s downward spiraling to depression also went viral after it was caught on camera!
Bangladesh’s National Advisory Committee for Autism and Neurodevelopment Disorders chairperson, Saima Hossain also spoke of her struggles with trauma during a technical briefing by the WHA72 on mental health week.
After a brutal government coup, Hossain became traumatized after the loss of 19 close family members. Not only that, but she had also grown up with an abusive, schizophrenic father. Even worse is the fact that she had lost her beloved mother-in-law to suicide.
The licensed psychologist narrates the horrors that she witnessed,” I saw violence and maladaptive behaviors of all kinds, and I survived.”
The discussion of mental health also brought to light the statistics on this grave issue of mental health illness;
Approximately 1 billion people in the world suffer from mental health issues.
Even worse is the fact that more than ¾ of people suffering from mental health issues come from medium-low-income regions. This is to say that the possibility that they will receive quality mental health care is greatly reduced.
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Studies report that people who suffer from mental illness face early deaths. They are more likely to die 2 decades earlier than those who don’t have mental health illnesses. For young people between the age of 15–29, suicide has been reported to be the second leading cause of early deaths.
Tedros Adhanom, WHO Director-General argues that without mental health, there is absolutely no health. He also mentioned the fact that care for people with mental health issues still lags behind the services of those with physical health issues.
A special initiative by the WHO has therefore been launched to raise $60 million to make quality, affordable mental health care available to more than 100 million people living in 12 high-priority countries by 2023. Not only will these efforts improve the setting for primary healthcare for mental health issues but they will also improve community support as well as specialty services and care.
“It’s a silent killer,” said Tedros, “we cannot understand and fight it unless we all do it together. It’s time to scale up, to fight the silent killer more aggressively.”
The Belgian Queen, Mathilde also mentioned the need for prioritization of mental health issues. “Mental health care is far too modest. Mental health care should be a mainstream issue,” she said. She pointed out that alternative mental health treatment methods are being developed beside the traditional institutionalization and medical options.
The executive director of BasicNeeds Ghana, Peter Yaro highlighted the plight of the 3 million people in his country in need of mental health care. Through his organization, he has trained over 2,000 people who have helped expand community-based treatment.
“Much more giant strides are needed. There is much more to be done,” Yaro pointed out. “It requires money and political will. We really need to really put our efforts on mental health.”
