Last week, the Associated Press reported on the deplorable state of Kenya’s only psychiatric hospital — where locking patients up and over-drugging them appear to be the norm. Things are so bad, recently 40 patients actually escaped from the hospital.
Mental health treatment continues to lag — sometimes quite severely — in under-developed countries throughout the world. Many countries in Africa continue to treat people with a mental illness as though they had leprosy or some other inexplicable, communicable disease.
Because so little is understood about mental illness by some of the peoples of these countries, family members are often outcast and given over to well-meaning — but severely understaffed and under-resourced — professionals. This is of little surprise when poverty is so rampant in countries like Kenya.
The Mathari psychiatric hospital — which has 675 patients in its general wards — lies close to the sprawling Mathare slum district of Nairobi. Kenya’s only psychiatric hospital also appears to confine and immobilize many of its patients, using drugs that put them in a comatose-like state.
Worse, if the hospital is full (and it nearly always is), family members apparently get their loved ones locked up somewhere else anyway, “Currently those who cannot access the right rehabilitation services are locked up and subjected to very inhumane treatments by their families and communities,” according to Edah Maina, the chief executive officer of the Kenya Society For the Mentally Handicapped.
But you know things are bad when your patients need to plan a prison-break to leave your “treatment” facility.
The Carter Center’s Janice Cooper, Ph.D. said this of Liberians, another poverty-stricken African country: “To most Liberians, people with a mental illness are useless for society. Some think that mental health conditions are contagious, or that victims are under the spell of witchcraft.”
The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program did something about the poor mental health treatment in Africa. It teamed up with Georgia Tech’s Computing for Good Initiative to help the Liberian government monitor the country’s mental health needs and train local mental health clinicians to help work reduce stigma and discrimination against mental illnesses in that country.
Sadly, there’s only so much money to go around. Perhaps if it works in Liberia — it’s a 5 year program — it can act as a model for other African countries.
But back in Kenya, this are not so good at the country’s sole psychiatric hospital:
‘‘They should be in a program … one that they consent to and is not forced on to them; and among other things, a program that ensures their continued productivity as members of society, not one that immobilizes them through use of outdated/outlawed drugs that turns them into mere zombies,” said Maina.
We couldn’t agree more. In the U.S., we call it “community treatment” — treat patients as close to home as possible. This resulted in more outpatient services being delivered and the closing of many state psychiatric hospitals across the country throughout the past four decades. It has also led to greater use of group homes (for people who need more supervised daily care) and day treatment programs (for people who need structured daily activities and can’t work because of their mental illness).
Programs like this can be rolled out in Africa, too, but it’s no wonder they haven’t. If we recall Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we’re reminded that before we can turn to treatment for mental illness, we need basic physiological needs to be met — food, water, sleep and shelter.
And in countries like Kenya, such basics are sometimes hard to find.
Read the article: Kenya’s mental hospital drugs, confines patients
Watch a video: Locked Up In Kenyan Mental Health Hospital
13 comments
Thanks for that story, very sad state of affairs, I hope something can be dome about it, I wonder if they let any psychologists in to help, be good if they did, because either way it seems as though psychiatry cant manage,Great site.thanks again.
as much as you tried to address the state of affairs, the tone of this post is condescending and damning. it does not provide any insight at all on the matter and seeks to paint African countries as they were painted in the 18th century.
This article manages to cast a small light on the problem of poverty and mental illness. It expresses how poorly mental illness is managed in the country of Africa as well as other under-developed countries. The Mathari Hosptial is very similar to the old mental hospitals in America in the 19th and 19th centuries. In a country where poverty is rampant, this seems to be the best that they have to offer. Also, because mental illness if viewed so negatively there, many do not want to provide anything better. They would just rather lock the mentally ill away from society. Poverty plays a very important role in the care and treatment of the mentally ill. Without the proper resources, these individuals may never receive the proper treatment and therefore will never learn to cope with or deal with their illnesses. In order for hospitals such as Mathari in Kenya to be transformed, money is needed. But until the country deals with the poverty level, mental care will remain on the backburner and therefore hospitals such as Mathari will continue to exist.
While reading this article I was shocked that people were trying to escape a hospital. As I read further though it made sense why people were trying to escape. The conditions are awful and how the patients are treated is cruel.
The article is trying to shed light on a rampant, urgent and horrifying situation in Kenya. Kenya is being rated as one of the fastest developing country in Africa, yet no resource appear to be allocated to mental illness. As the country becomes industrialized, the pressures and stress of middle and first world countries will begin to manifest. It is a challenge to the health care system, the policy makers and the political powers that be to recognize the problem and put the mechanism in place to address the growing need. Substance abuse, anxiety and depression, schizophrenia are all common psychiatric diseases that need management. Medicating the mentally ill without psychotherapy and rehabilitation has not been proven successful. The government will need to allocate funds for Community mental health centers and substance abuse facilities, not just money to pharmaceutical companies or to psychiatrists.
Kenya and other places in Africa don’t even have enough food, water and shelter for everyone so there mental health treatment and even treatment facilities don’t have people who know what exactly needs to be done. This article talks about how people with mental illnesses in Kenya are looked upon as people who basically can’t do anything and they are not in any rush to help them instead they are out finding food or water. The U.S. has ways to cope with mental illness but Kenya can’t even think about that.
After reading this article I feel that I have a better understanding of the conditions that one might face if suffering a mental illness in Africa. If the residents of the one facility in the country are trying to escape, they clearly are not getting the treatment needed. However, I do agree that here in the U.S. we have many options of how to deal with mental illness because the vast majority of Americans are not struggling to find water and food everyday. Kenya is so poverty-stricken to begin with that proper mental care is not a top priority.
Before reading your article I had been wondering if mental illness was looked at in their culture such as was it mental or did they believe it had something to do with witchcraft or such. It is ashame that people look at mental illness as a communicable disease but I also know if one is not educated then they fear what they do not know.
This article helped to shed light on it really looks like to be treated for a mental illness in Kenya. Due to their beliefs in sub-Saharan Africa, it seems clear that the people who are diagnosed with a mental disease would be outcasted as if they could infect others. With education and help, maybe things could change for the mentally ill people in Kenya.
Sometimes it is hard to help those with mental illness because they don’t understand where it comes from and how to treat it. the fact the people believe that mental illness is caused by possession or evil spirits makes it hard to properly treat it. it also makes it hard to get funding to get more state hospitals and outpatient treatments.
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This article did a great job on giving insight on what mental health situations look like in a foreign country. It also shows that not a lot of people in countries such as this one prefer to take a career path in mental health. The first priority of a public institution should be the safety and well being of patients, but unfortunately that is not present in this situation. People having to escape a mental hospital because of mistreatment is saddening. Mental health is definitely something that is underfunded, especially in places with limited resources.
I love how this article sheds light on the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the psychiatric hospital in Kenya. Mental health seems to be a problem around the world, but deplorable conditions are less likely in the West so we can sometimes forget about the struggles of others. Increased funding for Kenya’s hospital could be beneficial. More staff members can be hired to adequately care for the patients in need. Community involvement could also help. As the article stated, many believe that mental illnesses are contagious and are a result of witchcraft. Education on mental health is very important; educated family members can provide an additional source of support for the mentally ill.