{"id":97576,"date":"2023-07-09T18:04:32","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T18:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told"},"modified":"2023-07-09T18:48:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T18:48:27","slug":"seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told","title":{"rendered":"Seek mental health services from qualified staff, Kenyans told"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. <\/strong><\/span>Kenyans have been told to seek mental health services from qualified professionals whenever need be, to improve the status of their mental wellbeing.<\/p>\n

Kenya Red Cross Society, Lower Eastern regional manager Patience Kitonga said they had created an online platform where they have professional telecounselors to provide tele-counselling services through emergency number 1199.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2020 during the Covid-19 period, we noticed that mental health was a critical issue hence Kenya Red Cross Society has come out strongly to advocate for this,\u201d Kitonga said.<\/p>\n

Kitonga spoke during the \u2018Power of Humanity Walk\u2019 at Wote town in Makueni on Saturday, July 8.<\/p>\n

The five kilometres walk was organized by the Humanitarian organization in partnership with the Makueni county government, Nacada, No Summit Too High Foundation led by its founder and mountaineer Dr Faith Mwende.<\/p>\n

It was intended to create awareness on matters of mental health in the Lower Eastern Region.<\/p>\n

The theme was \u2018together we can overcome mental health stigma\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy and excited that several partners have come on board to support this initiative. This theme is basically around building our mental health, and this is critical space that we are mobilizing partners to come and speak about,\u201d Kitonga said.<\/p>\n

Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior was represented in the walk by four of his CECs.<\/p>\n

They included Japheth Mang\u2019oka (Devolution), Damaris Kavoi (Finance), Nicholas Nzioka (Gender and Sports) and county secretary Justine Kyambi.<\/p>\n

Participants planted trees at the governor\u2019s office compound and Kenya Red Cross Society\u2019s Makueni county office compound before conducting a procession from the latter\u2019s venue through the streets of Wote town before holding a sensitization meeting at Wote Green Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to create awareness and remind everybody that their well-being is very critical and for us as an organization, we have gone ahead to even share the online platform that provides telecounseling services,\u201d Kitonga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we call on all partners and Kenyans of goodwill and ages to champion mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kitonga said some of the areas they were keen on were; lifestyles and how basically \u2018we are running at workplaces\u2019 as Kenyans looking at issues around stress as one of the biggest contributors to mental ill-health.<\/p>\n

She said the advocacy and push that they were involved in was to create awareness for people to take care of their mental health.<\/p>\n

Kitonga said it could be diet or exercise, but the little efforts individuals put towards mental health shouldn\u2019t just be for themselves alone, but also for those around them.<\/p>\n

She urged Kenyans to hold each other together and be others\u2019 champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental ill-health isn\u2019t the people who we see undressed on roads. It\u2019s even the instability we have in our mental status. So, what\u2019s we are rallying on that we change our lifestyles, accommodate each other, learn to speak when we need to,\u201d Kitonga said.<\/p>\n

She said they had a group of volunteers trained as peer facilitators who had been trained by professionals to provide mental health services in schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have weekly sessions in schools where our peer facilitators have one on one or group counselling sessions with children,\u201d Kitonga said.<\/p>\n

Mwende shared her experience and the lessons she learnt while she attempted to summit Mt. Everest.<\/p>\n

She told Kenyans to face life with patience, resilience and positivity since no situation is permanent.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is impossible. There will be always a solution to that situation. There is always next time just like it was in my case while summitting Mt Everest in Nepal, Asia,” Mwende said.<\/p>\n

“If you see the \u2018weather\u2019 is dangerous like in my case for Mt Everest, retreat and relax for there is always next time.”<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Kenya<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenyans have been told to seek mental health services from qualified professionals whenever need be, to improve the status of their mental wellbeing. Kenya Red Cross Society, Lower Eastern regional manager Patience Kitonga said they had created an online platform where they have professional telecounselors to provide tele-counselling services through emergency number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":97575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[6857,7003,544],"class_list":["post-97576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-kenya","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"\nSeek mental health services from qualified staff, Kenyans told - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kenyans have been told to seek mental health services from qualified professionals whenever need be, to improve the stat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seek mental health services from qualified staff, Kenyans told\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kenyans have been told to seek mental health services from qualified professionals whenever need be, to improve the stat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-09T18:04:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-09T18:48:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2023\/07\/sm_1688912038.856412.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Seek mental health services from qualified staff, Kenyans told\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-09T18:04:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-09T18:48:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told\"},\"wordCount\":631,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2023\/07\/sm_1688912038.856412.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Kenya\",\"Kenya\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seek-mental-health-services-from-qualified-staff-kenyans-told\",\"name\":\"Seek mental health services from qualified staff, Kenyans told - 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