“Consider capacitating traditional and faith based healers for legal counselling”

Leonard Ncube

ZIMBABWE should consider capacitating traditional and faith based healers to be able to provide legal counselling and psychological support to mental health patients.

This comes amid revelations the country has only 40 registered psychologists, 38 of them in private practice and only two in Government while there are over 55 000 registered traditional healers and over 20 000 registered faith based healers.

Mental health is a serious emerging issue affecting citizens both in the private family space and workplace thereby affecting production and other socio-economic activities.

This is a big issue in Zimbabwe especially where up to 30 percent of adults have depression while more than 50 percent of young people also suffer mental health according to experts.

Speaking at the ongoing 15 edition of the Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) Annual Conference in Victoria Falls, a lead and managing consultant at Vitality Wellness Zimbabwe, Mrs Edith Maziofa-Tapfuma said there is a need to demythfy mental health.

She said close to 1 billion people across the world have mental disorder and depression is a leading cause for disability worldwide where depressed adult amount to 5 percent.

“There are 55 000 registered traditional leaders and over 20 000 registered faith based healers. Probably we should admit traditional and faith healers as psychologists,” she said.