Twenty
Psychiatric nurses drawn from health facilities countrywide and American
International University in West Africa The Gambia (AIUWA) are currently
attending a five-day training of trainers’ workshop on common mental health
disorders and treatment at Tendaba Camp in Kiang Central District of Lower
River Region.
The
five-day training was organised by the Ministry of Health in partnership with
the mental health Leadership and Advocacy Program (mhLAP).
In
his remarks to commence the workshop, the Regional Principal Nursing Officer
for Lower River Region (LRR), Basiru Drammeh, on behalf of his Regional
Directorate, Momodou Lamin Manneh, said that in The Gambia, it is estimated
that about 120,000 people have mental health disorder, but “only 3,000 people
are receiving treatment on yearly basis”.
“This
implies that most of the people with severe mental disorder in The Gambia are
left without access to the treatment and we must all make efforts to reduce the
situation,” Drammeh told Psychiatric nurses.
Drammeh
informed participants that most of the time mental disorders go undetected or
are wrongly attributed to supernatural forces or witchcraft thus coupled with
lack of access to care, which can lead to devastating outcome for affected
individuals and families.
For
his part, country facilitator of mental health Leadership and Advocacy Program
in The Gambia, Dawda Samba, said the mhLAP is a WHO collaboration advocacy
project.
“The
project is aimed at empowering individuals and groups to do self-advocacy and
capacity building in mental health service delivery,” Samba said.
Key
among the activities of mhLAP The Gambia, he went on, are the mass media and
community advocacy programmes, advocates for policy and legislative
development, support to mental health institutions, national and international
trainings and workshops, support to the mentally ill, campaign against drug
misuse and abuse, annual celebrations of World Mental Health Day (WMHD), among
others.
The
training is part of the process of implementing the Mental Health Gap Action
Program Intervention Guide (mhGAP - IG) that The Gambia recently
contextualised.
He
commended the WHO Country Office through Momodou Gassama, Health Promotion and
Communication Officer, The Gambia, for their contribution to the successful
activity and outcome of the process.
According
to Samba, the workshop is primarily aimed at training a cohort of health staff
to subsequently serve as cascade/step-down trainers on the mhGAP IG Gambia.
He
added that the process started with domesticating the WHO tool in December thus
signed by the Minister of Health as a national treatment guide.
“All
these processes are conducted with the full participation of the Ministry of
Health,” Dawda Samba said, adding: “The expectation of the five-day training
workshop is to provide community mental health care to those that need it.”
Health
Promotion and Communication Officer at WHO office in The Gambia, Momodou
Gassama, informed Psychiatric nurses that globally mental health is a neglected
area.
He
urged the nurses to make the best use of the opportunity during the five-day
training by acquiring more knowledge on mental health, which could be utilised
at their various institutions and the nation at large.
