Rising Suicides Shine Spotlight on Malawi ’s Mental Health Burden

There is a critical shortage of qualified healthcare staff in Malawi to deal with the growing mental health burden in the country. Credit: Charles MpakaBy Charles MpakaLilongwe, Malawi, Dec 13 2021 (IPS) When a former deputy speaker of Parliament shot himself dead within the National Assembly buildings in Lilongwe in September 2021, it shook Malawi. It also turned attention to the mental health burden in the country. Experts say that a sharp rise in suicide cases has become the most visible expression of the burden of mental health challenges in Malawi. “There’s depression, stress and many other silent forms of disorders. More often, we act quickly on a mentally challenged person because he is causing havoc,” says Harry Kawiya, a psychiatric clinical officer at the Zomba Mental Hospital, Malawi’s only referral mental health facility and one of the two specialised institutions in the country. “But the rising of cases of suicides recently tells us the severity of the mental health problem among us, which we are not adequately addressing.” National police records show that suicide cases have increased drastically in Malawi over the past three years. For instance, between January and March 2021, the country registered 76 suicides – an increase of nearly 50 percent over the same period last year. One police station in Lilongwe registers an average of six cases every month, the station’s spokesperson, Foster Benjamin, tells IPS. “This is a steep rise, and it’s ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Development & Aid Featured Headlines Health Inequity Mental Health TerraViva United Nations #Covid19 #MentalHealth IPS UN Bureau Malawi Source Type: news