Africa-Press – Namibia.
In response to Namibia’s ongoing suicide crisis, the Ministry of Health and Social Services is integrating and decentralising mental health services into primary healthcare through various means.
This was confirmed by the health ministry’s spokesperson Walters Kamaya.
He said primary healthcare and mental health integration deal with joining mental health services with primary health care to provide more holistic and accessible care.
Statistics from the ministry reveal that for the 2023/2024 financial year, 542 cases of suicide were recorded, of which 449 were men, 80 women, eight boys and five girls.
Kamaya stressed that the number suggests that mental health issues amongst men are a matter of great concern.
Despite the dire need for mental health care services, mental health services are not yet wholly integrated into primary health care in Namibia.
“Currently, the ministry is working on initiatives aimed at integrating and decentralising mental health services into primary health care,” Kamaya told Nampa in an interview.
The process of integration began in October 2022 with a slow start being observed, but the process is now progressing well.
“The aim is to facilitate early detection of mental health conditions and early brief interventions,” he said.
He highlighted the adoption of the World Health Organisation’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) guideline to the Namibian setting as one example of how the ministry intends to include mental health into primary health care.
He referred to the mhGAP as a resourceful guide aimed at fostering the delivery of mental health services for non-specialised staff or teams at all levels of care.
“Other initiatives include training of health care workers at the regional and district level on providing basic mental health services such as screening for mental health conditions and psychological first aid,” Kamaya highlighted.
“Integration will include mental health screening tools (for depression, anxiety and alcohol use) being administered to persons presenting with symptoms to the clinic. Mild cases will be managed at the clinical level. Severe cases will be referred to the hospital and mental health specialist services. Every clinic will be mandated to include it in routine screening for all patients being seen in the clinics,” he stated.
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