BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
Doctor Fungai Musinami, Hange district medical officer, revealed in an interview that Victoria Falls Hospital is not adequately equipped to address mental health issues.
“We do not have a dedicated mental health facility infrastructure or even a drug or substance abuse rehabilitation at the moment,” she said. “But there are projects that are ongoing to try and establish something within the city.”
Despite these challenges, Musinami emphasized that the government is working to prioritize mental health and address the interconnected issue of drug and substance abuse.
“We are working together with drug and substance abuse because these two go together,” she explained.
However, the situation in the whole province is dire.
Out of all the seven district hospitals, none has a facility to handle mental health issues, instead, patients are referred to other institutions in Bulawayo or further.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Zimbabwe has one of the highest suicide rates in Africa, with 18.4 suicides per 100 000 people.
The WHO notes that mental health issues are often stigmatized in Zimbabwean culture, leading to a lack of seeking help and support.
In the background, Zimbabwe is grappling with a mental health crisis, exacerbated by social and economic factors such as poverty, unemployment, and trauma. Research has shown that these factors contribute significantly to mental health problems in Zimbabwe.
Musinami emphasized that community-based initiatives like the Friendship Bench are making a difference.
“We have trained community health workers for support of mental health,” she said.
“We are looking at scaling that up in the days to come, so that within your wards in the communities, there will be someone trained to do counseling through the Friendship Bench model.”
As Musinami noted that lot of people that end up committing suicide will give hints along the way.