JINJA: Alcohol and drug abuse are the leading cause of mental health issues in Uganda, a survey report by Mental Health Uganda (MHU) has noted.
The survey was a result of a social contact project in Jinja City aimed at destigmatizing mental health conversations within the region.
The project also discovered that witchcraft, chronic medical conditions, genetic factors, and severe stress also play a secondary role in causing mental health issues among the people of Jinja.
“The feedback from focus groups discussions with persons with lived experiences and key informants indicated that community members associate mental health conditions to witchcraft. Due to this belief, most people with mental health conditions are considered as cursed and outcasts,” reads part of the survey report.
The survey was conducted with the intention of establishing the public knowledge around mental health and related services and assessing the public attitude towards people with mental health problems in Jinja city.
Central to this project was the champions model, which emphasizes community engagement through social contact. The organization initiated a knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) survey.
The survey also revealed that 52 per cent of households in Jinja City have since encountered mental health conditions.
The month of June remains the male mental health awareness month in which individuals and organizations across the country step up to raise awareness of and help address the challenges faced by people living with mental health conditions.
Mr Jonathan Nunda, the head of Fundraising and Partnership Development at Mental health Uganda, says the first step to addressing mental health issues among people and in households is for people to start speaking up.
“Sensitization of members should happen but most important is that people should be encouraged to speak up and when they do, there should be room for kindness and compassion,” he said.
Two Key Informant Interviews (Jinja City Mental Health Focal Person and District Community Development Officer) and two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted involving persons with lived experiences of mental health problems.
Findings show that most community members have limited knowledge about mental health conditions.
This lack of knowledge influences their negative attitudes and practices, adversely affecting the success of patient care, effective use of medical treatment, rehabilitation, and the healing process for individuals and their families.
The findings also suggest that most residents have negative attitudes towards persons with mental health conditions.
Mr Nunda, who has also been supporting data collection and knowledge management on the social contact project in Jinja city, said all community mobilization efforts should integrate mental health awareness.
“Economic empowerment at household and community level should be prioritized as poverty has been a stand-up cause of mental illnesses across all communities,” he said.
A quantitative survey involved a sample of 200 households randomly sampled from a population of 280,900 individuals in Jinja City based on the Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2023 population projections.
Whereas 65 per cent of the respondents agreed with the statement that “people with mental health condition have the same rights as anyone else in the community”, less than half of the respondents, 40 per cent, agreed that people with mental health conditions can make a positive contribution in the community.
“Based on the feedback across the 6 positive statements about mental health conditions, more than half (60%) of the respondents can be categorized as having negative attitudes towards persons with mental health conditions,” the report said.
Sixty per cent of the respondents agreed with the statement that people with mental health condition are a danger to themselves and society urging that they should be confined in isolated places to avoid causing danger to others.
Isolating mentally challenged individuals, experts at MHU say, is a violation of their rights.
More than three quarters (84%) of the respondents from the households that had never had any of their household member suffer from a mental health condition indicated that they would not get married to a person with a mental health condition.
Mr John Dhikonte, one of the experts who carried out the survey, says the project was purposed to improve the public’s knowledge on mental health, change their behaviours towards people with experience of mental health problems and enhance access to care for the affected persons
“For individuals to adopt new behaviour, it is necessary to increase their level of knowledge about the desired behaviour, address the current barriers, and provide support points to facilitate positive behaviour change,” he said.
MHU recommends that mass media campaigns aimed at addressing knowledge gaps, negative attitudes, and practices towards people with mental health conditions should be designed and implemented.
