A meeting aimed at creating a pool of ideas and methodologies to improve services given to people with mental problems began Sunday at Foyer de Charite in Rebero, Kicukiro District.

In attendance were mental practitioners including mental doctors, psychiatrists and therapists from various countries like Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Burundi and Luxemburg.

"We called for professionals in the field of mental health from different parts of the world so that we can get a variety of ideas and skills from the different contexts.

This will help us to come up with the best approaches and thus improve our practice,” said Professor Simon Gasibirege, the chief organizer of the meeting.

According to Prof. Gasibirege, the forum accepted to deal with the problem of mental disability from a community perspective, where it was resolved that mentally disabled people be treated collectively as opposed to treating them individually.

According to the professor, mentally sick people should be taken to mental rehabilitation centers where they can become in-patients, as opposed to treating them as out-patients.

"Treating mentally disabled people as they go back home has proven futile to their recovery. So we had to change the approach,” added Prof. Gasibirege

According to the Professor, it was discovered that many cases of disability in Rwanda are trauma-induced and need to be in a community that makes them realize that they are not the only ones with the problem, in order to enhance their recovery.

The mental health practitioners were urged to involve the entire community in helping people with mental problems because in most cases the community has had a hand in their creation.

Also in attendance were local and international organizations like World Vision Rwanda, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Catholic Relief Services, Handicap International and many others.

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