PMID: 11762316
Issn Print: 0959-4965
Publication Date: 2001/11/16
WHO TO PUBLISH LANDMARK REPORT BASED ON MENTAL HEALTH STATUS IN AFRICA
Excerpt
To the great benefit of Africa the World Health Organization (WHO) (http://www.who.int) plans to publish a report based on the World Health Day celebrated earlier this year in Nairobi. With focus on mental health the WHO director Dr Gro Brundtland emphasized that the burden of mental ill health and brain disorders in Africa is a serious challenge. The resources and manpower to deal with mental illness are sparse. She recounted how Kenyan authorities demonstrated openness by inviting the public to visit their national mental hospital. She said this openness is made possible because of the new and effective means now available to treat and prevent brain disorders and mental illness. Modern mental health care focuses more on the family and the local community; uses effective and relatively inexpensive medicines; and is geared to prevention, early detection and treatment rather than incarceration. The forthcoming World Health Report, to be published in October will provide a firm global overview of the current and future burden of mental ill health and their main contributing factors. It will contain strategies for ensuring that effective prevention and treatment are both put in place and adequately funded. It will show how countries like Kenya have started to change the way they provide mental health care. It was emphasized that information on the burden of disease and on health system responses is essential if resources are to be used as effectively as possible. Some countries have initiated programs of national health surveys so as to provide a regular assessment of the status of their people's health and the working of health systems.
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