By JOWIT SALUSEKI –
Millions  of people around the world suffer from various mental health disorders once in a while in their lifetime.
Mental health includes the emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
It affects how one thinks, feels, and acts. It also helps determine how people handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through to adulthood.
Although there have been a lot of discrimination against people living with mental illness, the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) report indicates that more than 350 million people around the global suffer from mental illness.
Every year on October 10, countries in the world celebrate mental health education, awareness and advocacy. This year’s theme was ‘Dignity in mental health’.
In order to remove misconceptions and raise awareness on mental health in the country , an inter-schools debate involving Kafue Boys , Nampundwe,
St Marys and Naboye secondary schools was recently organised in Lusaka by the Ministry of Health and Fracarita Southern Zambia.
Speaking during the event, Fracarita Southern Zambia Regional Coordinator
Constantino Chisi said the organisation in partnership with the Government –  was setting up a psychiatric rehabilitation centre in Kasama at a cost of over K12 million.
The centre which is to be located about 40 kilometres from Kasama General Hospital would mainly cater for patients from the northern region of the
country, particularly people that have responded well to treatment and are fit for rehabilitation before they can be reunited with their families.
Mr Chisi said the core objective of the psychiatric rehabilitation centre would be to provide therapy to chronic patients as well as to provide them with skills to prepare them to be useful members of society.
“Chronic psychiatric patients shall be the primary target for the centre because they are an abandoned group and are left to roam the streets.
“We want to improve their quality of life and help them contribute to a more humane society in which there is room for the poor and the weak,” Mr Chisi said.
He said by organising the inter-school debate, his organisation hoped to strengthen the role of the citizens and school going children in the dissemination of information on mental health.
“At institutional level, we are calling on all employers, NGOs and learning institutions to invest in the mental wellbeing of their employees,” Mr Chisi said.
He noted that a mentally fit workforce was a productive one since things like stress, anxiety and depression that cause mental stress had the
potential to lower productivity in a workplace as well as increase the risk of accidents.
John Mayeya, Chief Mental Health Officer in the ministry of Health said the Government was building a new mental hospital unit at Ndola Central Hospital and modernising the Chainama Hospital in Lusaka. Construction of a mental heal unit at Solwezi General Hospital had reached an advanced stage.
Mr Mayeya said Government plans to take   mental health services as close to the community as possible and this will be done  in a clean, competent and caring environment.
“The Ministry of Health believes and is convinced that an education institution is one of the greatest dwellings for teachers, students and
pupils to become increasingly aware of mental health, mental problems and mental disorders. School is also one of the best places to fight stigma and
discrimination against mental health problems and mental disorders,’’ Mr Mayeya said.
He said in order to inculcate a passion for spreading information on mental health, the ministry intends to introduce media awards for journalists.
Mental Health of Zambia goodwill ambassador Nancy Haandabile proposed the introduction of mental health as a course in the school curriculum.
Mulenga Mpabalwani, a Grade 10 pupil at at St Marys Secondary School called for all learning centres in the country to form clubs where issues of
mental health could be discussed in order to increase awareness and reduce discrimination among the citizenry.
In his speech during the fifth session of the eleventh National Assembly, President Edgar Lungu observed that Zambia has not paid adequate attention
to the challenge of mental health. He directed the Minister of Health to take to Parliament the Mental Health Bill aimed at promoting and protecting
the rights of persons with mental disorders as well as repealing the 1949 Mental Disorder Act.