Bwiza (not real name) is a 26 years old single mother who has been suffering from mental health issues from the age of 17. She never got the chance to get help early on.
In an interview with The New Times, she said that growing up in a religious family with mental health issues plus living in a rural area was the biggest challenge and only worsened her condition.
“My family was not there for me when I was going through tough times and whenever I tried to go to the hospital, I was not able to get a psychologist and lived with mental problems until I turned 23 years old,” she said.
Bwiza added that the lack of mental health services in her area exacerbated her situation citing an example of how she attempted to commit suicide more than three times.
She said that she only got her break when she relocated to Kigali for work and was introduced to a private psychiatric hospital.
“While still in the village, I was told that there were psychiatric services at the local hospital but I’ve never accessed such services and I highly doubt that time the service was there,” she added.
Innocent Nsengiyumva, the psychologist at Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital said that there is more effort needed in that specific area as well.
“The numbers show that over 20 percent of Rwandan population have mental health issues knowingly or unknowingly… that still big number,” he said adding that; “Yet we still have a big number of qualified medics who are not deployed in any hospital.”
He further explained that these psychologists should have been deployed to help people in need. He also pointed out the challenge in having access to work as a private institution specialized in mental health issues.
“There is also a deficit of private hospitals in this specific medical practice due to the tight process of being allowed to open one. This also is another reason for insufficient facilities,” he said.
In addition, he said that a huge number of Rwandans are not aware of mental health issues until it is too late due to lack of information among other reasons.
He recommends raising more awareness around mental health as well as facilitating new private hospitals for those who qualify to ensure the services are brought closer to as many people as possible.
However, commenting on these concerns Dr. Jean Damascene Iyamuremye, the head of psychiatric care and treatment in Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) said that there are enough mental health facilities but people don’t use them enough.
“According to the research we conducted, at least 75 percent Rwandans know that the mental health facilities exist, but those who use them are less than 10 percent,” he said
In addition, Iyamuremye said 80 percent of public hospitals provide mental health services and in all public hospitals, there are qualified psychologists and specialized nurses in mental health issues.
“On top of that, we have 15 psychiatrists in CHUB, CHUK, Caraes Ndera Hospital, and Rwanda Military Hospital,” he said adding that “we are even among countries with a big number of psychiatrists,”
He added that more training has been conducted for health workers so that they can at least offer basic support for all patients that seek such services.
Iyamuremye, however, said that despite the existence of mental health services, the problem is worrying and it is mainly worsened by stigma and some medics who project unprofessional conduct on patients seeking services, among other reasons.
As a way forward, he revealed that they are increasing the services provided, raising more awareness around this topic, and reaching 100 percent availability of mental health services countrywide among other measures.
“To be able to increase these services, we intend to among others increase group therapy,” he said, adding that other measures include mobile clinics and using technology to reach more patients.
A recent mental health survey by the Ministry of Health estimated that 20.49 percent of the general population met the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental disorders.