The first National Mental Health Symposium in Ethiopia called for the reforming of mental health services. The two-day symposium organized by the Federal Ministry of Health in Addis Ababa, 11-12 August, gathered together mental health professionals, religious leaders, representatives of international organizations and other experts to discuss effective strategies to address mental health in Ethiopia. The Symposium concluded that Ethiopia has the political commitment and leadership, a clear agenda and robust health infrastructure, but the engagement of all stakeholders is needed to scale-up and integrate mental health into the health system.
“Improved access to primary health care provides an excellent opportunity to also improve mental health services,” Dr Kesetebirhan Admasu, Minister of Health, said, stressing that mental health is integrated into the Health Extension Programme, thus enabling all health extension workers with a basic understanding of mental health. He also appointed Ato Abebe Balcha, a renowned Ethiopian artist and lawyer, as the country’s Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health to raise awareness on mental health and to reduce stigma and discrimination against those affected.
“The National Mental Health Symposium testifies the commitment and endeavor of the Ministry in addressing mental health needs of the Ethiopian people,” said Dr Pierre M’Pele-Kilebou and highlighted that mental health is a core element of the definition of good health. On behalf of the Health Development Partners’ Network, Dr Peter Salama, UNICEF Representative, said that the Symposium is an important milestone and confirmed the support of partners to address mental health challenges in Ethiopia.
The health development partners came together in a side event hosted by Dr Amir Aman, State Minister of Health, on 11 August to mobilize support for the scale-up of mental health care in Ethiopia. Eleven per cent of the total burden of disease in Ethiopia can be attributed to mental health disorders. People suffering from mental illness are often the most marginalized, and affected by stigma and discrimination. The participants learned that Ethiopia’s scale-up plan of integrated mental health care will add value to existing programmes to improve health and development in the country.
WHO, in collaboration and support of the European Union and Foundation d’Harcourt, has been supporting the FMoH to scale-up mental health services and successfully implement the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) in selected sites over the past three years. Dr M’Pele-Kilebou assured that WHO will continue to collaborate with FMoH to reach the target of 800 health facilities, as assigned by FMoH, with mhGAP training from the current 150, as well as conduct training of trainers on all aspects of mental health in humanitarian emergencies by the end of 2014.
Dr Shekhar Saxena, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse of the World Health Organization, noted that Ethiopia’s experience of implementing WHO’s Comprehensive Mental health Action Plan 2013-2020 will serve as a good example for the African region and indeed for the entire world.
The second National Mental Health Symposium will be held in 2015 at Mekelle University, Tigray Regional State.
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Source: World Health Organization, August 13, 2014
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