Kenya Government Urged to Invest More in Disaster ResponsePsychological First Aid

Psychiatric Disability Organization (PDO), a Nakuru based organization that advocates for the recognition of mental health as an important public health problem, joins the rest of the global mental health fraternity in commemorating this years World Mental Health Day.

This is an important day in the mental health calendar, which puts mental health at the centre stage and encourages a national conversation around this issue. According to Ministry of Health, one in four Kenyans will experience mental health difficulties at one time or the other but many will receive little or no help when they present with an emergency.

The theme of this years World Mental Health Day is psychological first aid. Efforts in support of the day focus on basic pragmatic psychological support by people who find themselves in a helping role - health staff, teachers, firefighters, community workers, or police officers.

Crisis events involving exposure to trauma and sudden loss occur in all communities of the world. In Kenya, we have had our fair share of these exposures including terrorism, motor vehicle accidents, political violence, domestic violence, rape, or violent crimes, and natural disasters.

PDO Founder/CEO Iregi Mwenja said, In line with this years theme, we hope to contribute to the goal of taking mental health out of the shadows so that people in general feel more confident in tackling the stigma, isolation and discrimination that continues to plague people with mental health conditions, their families and carers

The potential mental health and psychosocial consequences of unattended exposure to trauma are dreadful. The rates of mood and anxiety disorders, substance use, general psychological distress, social needs and impairments in social functioning increase among those exposed to crisis events.

Veronica Ngechu, a psychological counselor at PDO emphasizes the importance of psychological first aid, Psychological first aid help people cope with the stress, shock, confusion, fear, feelings of hopelessness, grief, anger, guilt and withdrawal that arise when a catastrophe has occurred.

She added, Emotional distress is not always as visible as physical injury, but it is just as painful and debilitating but our society tend to ignore it a lot

Psychological first aid does not require a professional to carry out the steps of care. The process can be learned and employed by anyone who can make direct contact with people affected by crisis.

The earlier you can help someone in gaining a sense of calm and meeting their immediate needs, the better they can cope throughout their state of trauma. Support based on the principles of psychological first aid is a form of support that can be delivered by professionals and non-professionals alike after a brief orientation of a less than a day.

Despite these steps being easy to learn and implement, Mwenja lamented, Our society is very poorly equipped with capacity to handle psychological needs of people during traumatic events as seen in the haphazard approach employed in times of disaster. We never learnt from Sachangwan, Westgate, Garisa, Mpeketoni, Kapedo, Baragoi and list goes on.

Initial response in times of disaster involves mainly people from the local communities, Red Cross workers, the police in case of armed robbery or accidents, local medical staff in case of physical trauma, teachers if the events occur at school, and so on. There is need to train this people on psychological first aid.

I urge the government to increase the mental health funding from the current 0.5 per cent of the Health budget to 5 per cent so that we can expand our capacity to handle mental health related problems more satisfactorily as a country, said Iregi.

The Government need to facilitate conduct of a campaign aimed at training Kenyans on psychological first aid. We cannot continue ignoring mental and emotional well-being of Kenyans especially at times of disasters. The government should stop institutionalizing mental health stigma by investing more in the sector and coming out openly to support mental health initiative.

PDO urges the Ministry of Health to scale up psychological first aid widely, and make it a component of the overall response to emergencies, in a structured and professional approach. It should be taught in Kiganjo, our tertiary institutions and at the community health workers level.