In a bid to advance mental health services, Kigali Psycho-Medical Center signed a partnership with Rwanda Social Security Board with a goal to ease access to mental health services. This was announced in a tweet on Thursday 5, May. Janvier Yubahwe, a psychiatrist at Kigali Psycho-Medical Center said that this partnership is going to make it easy for patients that use RSSB to access their services. “Mental health services are usually found in public health facilities, our center is the first private health facility to offer these services. It is sometimes hard for people who use private centers to access these facilities because the costs are high, but it is going to be easy in financial terms.” Moreover, RSSB says that mental health services are among services covered by RSSB in different health facilities, as per their category. “When RSSB signs a partnership contract with a facility, this means that all members can access those contracted services,” Dr. Lysette Umutesi, the Head of Medical Department at RSSB explained. The contributions paid to RSSB represent 15 percent of the employee’s basic salary. It is paid by both the employer and the employee at the rate of 7.5 per cent each. RSSB also covers medical insurance for pensioners with a 7.5 per cent contribution deducted from their monthly pension. It also covers 85 per cent of the bill for medical treatment and prescribed drugs. Kigali Psycho-Medical Center has different mental health experts who work across the region, among them being Caraes Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital, CHUK, and Huye Isange Rehabilitation. On top of its partnership with RSSB, the center also works with Radiant Insurance Rwanda, and Medical Insurance Scheme (MIS/UR). A study conducted by Rwanda Biomedical Center in 2018, showed that only 30 percent of the people who met the criteria for having mental disorders attempted to look for mental health support. Kigali Psycho-Medical Center offers psychiatry and psychotherapy services related to child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry, elderly psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, and sexotherapy.
