This week is mental health week in Swaziland, and both psychiatrists and the Principal Secretary for Health, Dr. Stephen Shongwe, have promised to try to improve community-based care around mental illness. In sub-Saharan Africa, only two percent of health budgets are spent on mental health, which mental illness rates hover around twenty-five percent, much like in the rest of the world. Of this money, according to the World Health Organization, eighty percent is used in hospital treatment of the most severely affected. As a result, community care that helps people with mental illness to live healthy lives within the community is severely affected. Dr. Stephen Shongwe, Swazi mental health professionals and representatives from the WHO are getting together to find ways to improve the situation within the country. More discussion of the story can be found here.
Commentary
Public Domain
While community mental health care is often seriously underfunded in the developed world, the situation is usually far worse in the developing world, where community health care, especially publicly-funded community health care, is often nearly non-existent. With serious physical health problems like the AIDS pandemic, it is easy to see how it has been overlooked, especially given the extremely small budgets under which national health efforts operate. However, it is very hopeful to see a country like Swaziland taking active steps to improve the lives of the mentally ill within their countries. Although community care for mental illness is not always life saving, it can make a world of difference for those who want to continue to live in (and contribute to) their local communities.
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