According to the World Health Organisation, approximately 450 million people currently suffer from mental disorders. The number of people with mental illness increases every year and yet still, people with the condition are treated with contempt or outright neglect.

Sunday Magazine’s Sharon Kantengwa finds out what can be done to remedy the situation.

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Individualism due to the developing world has not only increased mental illness but also the stigma. People do not care about each other anymore. I think that we need to be taught to be kind and not quickly judge other people. Mental disorder is not something you can run away from and patients need support from relatives and friends to quickly cope with the condition.

 

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We have tried sensitising people about mental health but they still relate mental disorders to witchcraft. Psychotic disorders are sometimes interpreted as trauma. One of the ways to tackle stigma is by sensitising people about the conditions and that it is only clinically diagnosed and treated. We are working with the media to increase awareness.

 

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I think it is because mental illness affects the ability of a patient to cope with the challenges of everyday life and it is easy for people to judge the patient based on what they are observing. Secondly many people do not have enough information about mental health and I think eradicating stigma will take time because it is about changing the mindset of people by increasing their knowledge about mental disorders through sensitisation.

 

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Ignorance about mental health is a worldwide issue and this results in stigma such that even the patients stigmatise themselves. This affects their social life, studies and work. Many people cannot differentiate psychotic and neurotic disorders and a boy, for example, will refuse to marry a girl that he is in love with because he thinks her mental illness cannot be cured. Many people will run to traditional healers and religious leaders because they think they can cure them and many mentally ill patients will be rejected at health centres because they think they cannot be helped and this is where I relate the scripture: "my people are suffering due to lack of knowledge.” With the help of the media and social media, experts and victims need to share their knowledge and stories to create sensitisation about this issue because only with enough knowledge, will we be able to fight stigma.