- Govt deny full opening of the country due to COVID19
- Only 1% health budget allocated to mental health issues
Health advocates are calling for more funds to the mental health department to ensure enough capacity in handling mental related cases in Ugandans which have increased due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Ms Doreen Kanyesigye, a mental health advocate who was speaking during the virtual meeting to assess Government policies in combating the spread of COVID 19 visa-vi mental health, has noted that only 1% of the health budget is being allocated to mental health issues.
According to her, the country’s ratio of mental health specialists to mental health patients is 1:1million and this explains the need to have more mental health specialists joining this field.
‘’You know we only allocate 1% of health budget to mental health issues, only 1%, world health organization recognizes that the most powerful and accessible institutions to take care of things such as common mental health disorders are churches, places of worships, schools and what buffering those institutions have been shut down’’. Kanyesigye noted.
According to her, all evidence shows that vaccination is apparently the only solution to end the spread of the virus, therefore the reason for the government and scientist for closing such important institutions that are key in narrowing mental health problems cannot stand.
She further explains that, pre-COVID19 study estimates had already put Uganda AS ONE OF TOP SIX COUNTRIES IN Africa with the highest rate of people with depression disorder and the outbreak of COVID19 just made the situation worse.
Dr. Clara Wekesa, a physician who was speaking at the same meeting noted that another mental illness that could be understated during the lock-down is coping mechanism, where some people adopted unhealthy coping strategies such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse and these perhaps comes with another multitude of repel effects.
on the same note, Bishop Wisdom Peter of Christian Minister noted that all over the world there so many testimony of people who have gotten health interventions through players of worships. he added that places of worships receives both vaccinated and those not vaccinated and it has also the role to sensitize communities about the advantages of being vaccinated.
Dr. Lina Zedriga, a lawyer and Vice president northern region, NUP who attended the same virtual, noted that the whole COVID19 prevention measures and presidential directives have been so militarized. According to her, many elderly women were beaten while struggling with baskets of yellow bananas on streets of Kampala.