Mental Health Act revised

Leonard Ncube , Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care is working on amending the Mental Health Act, a development that will result in the setting up of more specialist facilities countrywide and the introduction of a degree in psychiatry for nurses.

This came out at the just ended 4th annual Uniformed Forces Health Services Conference in Victoria Falls.

Dr Walter Mangezi, from the Ministry of Health and Child Care told delegates that mental health poses serious challenges to the health sector because it is not integrated into other health services.

He said funds are being mobilised towards the new initiatives.

“We’ve challenges in mental health, some of them being shortage of psychiatrists but the biggest problem is that it’s not integrated into the main system and works as if it’s a parallel programme. We need to find ways of integrating it to other services,” said Dr Mangezi.

He said efforts are also being made to develop community services for mental health where HIV and Aids services will be integrated as the government “tries to move away from use of multi-drugs to a single drug on mental patients.”

Dr Mangezi said plans were underway to partner private players to establish more psychiatric centres.

“We need to look into the private sector and partner service providers such as the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) to set up rehabilitation facilities. This will also involve training of clinical psychiatrists to beef up staff,” he said.

“A bridging programme for nurses will be introduced where the diploma course will be converted into a Bachelors of Arts Degree in psychiatric studies.”

Mental health disorders have been linked to crimes such as murder and rape.

Some cases have been linked to HIV and Aids where people living with the disease sometimes show symptoms of mental disorder.

Recently, the health advisor in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr Timothy Stamps said Zimbabwe has a critical shortage of psychiatrists with only 12 specialists qualified to provide serve to the whole country.