Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
IN a bid to deal a lasting blow to the drug and substance abuse scourge that is haunting the country’s communities, the Government has opened and capacitated two mental health clinics at United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) and Mpilo Central Hospital while establishing a Provincial Mental Health Office mandated to co-ordinate mental health issues.
The development is expected to decongest Ingutsheni Central Hospital — the only psychiatric hospital in the southern region of Zimbabwe, which has been overwhelmed by the number of inmates taken in from drug and substance abuse-related mental illnesses.
In an exclusive interview, the acting Provincial Mental Health Officer (PMHO), Mrs Chipo Zihweva said the establishment of the office has brought a significant change in assisting communities with drug and substance abuse-induced mental illness and mental illness in general.
“This is a fairly new office, it was established in 2021 and there is another in Harare. What necessitated the establishment of this office was the increase in mental health cases reported in the province, we had a high number of substance abuse and other mental health cases being admitted to Ingutsheni Hospital, but there was no representation of these people at the provincial level,” said Mrs Zihweva.
She said while the number of admissions at Ingutsheni has gone down in the past three months, the numbers indicate that more work still needs to be done to address the matter.
She said at one time about 90 percent of the patients at Ingutsheni were due to drug and substance abuse but the number has gone down to 70 percent adding that the two new clinics were expected to alleviate the pressure at Ingutsheni.
“We have managed to establish two new mental health clinics at Mpilo Central Hospital and at UBH that are managed by mental health focal persons. We now have many of our patients going to be seen at these two new clinics, it is a way to decongest Ingutsheni outpatients and admissions because some of the patients who are not so severe can be admitted to UBH or Mpilo and severe cases managed at Ingutsheni,” she said.
While acknowledging the stigma and discrimination common with mental health institutions, the PMHO said the clinics were an option for those who do not want to be seen at a mental health hospital.
“People do not want to go to Ingutsheni for psychiatric health care due to the stigma around mental health. Those who now know about UBH and Mpilo clinics go there for services, from January to May 2024, we witnessed a huge number of patients going to the clinic at Mpilo seeking services. When we try to talk about Ingutsheni they refuse and say they are not “mad”, not knowing that it is the referral centre where there are specialists like psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and all mental health personnel. It is our duty as an office to ensure that communities are informed about stigma around mental health,” said Mrs Zihweva.
She said the stigma around mental health and Ingutsheni as an institution was coming from the neglect that mental health issues suffered in previous years and members of the community’s lack of awareness on the subject as they label patients as “mad” instead of being sick and in need of help.
Following the opening of the two clinics, mental health focal persons have been trained on quality rights supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) under a mental health special initiative. They also were trained in problem-solving therapy to assist clients faced with mental health problems.
“We have done sensitisation workshops with various stakeholders in the city to make them aware of our office and that we are ready to collaborate with them in trying to curb issues of substance abuse. We are calling on many others to join hands with us as we carry out our work and also during awareness campaigns when we go to communities, churches and schools. We have screening tools that we use to screen substance abuse clients. We are also chairing the harm reduction pillar in the task force against drug and substance abuse,” said Mrs Zihweva.
She highlighted that the Government was seized with establishing drug rehabilitation centres to enable recovering patients to seek further help after leaving Ingutsheni as the city only has a psychiatric hospital that is doubling as a rehabilitation centre.
Mrs Zihweva said for one to be weaned off drugs and substance abuse, the journey requires a minimum of three months going forward which necessitates the need for Government rehabilitation centres as the available private ones are too expensive.
“Due to the cost, some people are admitted for one week or two which is inadequate for rehabilitation,” she said.
The PMHO and other health shareholders offer integrated community services where they have different service providers offering services like HIV testing, Tuberculosis screening, family planning, and mental health services in one place.
“We did one in Cowdray Park and even had one-on-one with clients regarding mental health and services that are available. We do have a long way to go as communities are not aware of mental health. As for the integrated approach, we have some people who abuse drugs through injection and share those syringes and in that process infect each other. That is why we educate them about HIV and TB. When people start to abuse drugs they neglect seeking health services so we play that role to remind them to seek the other services,” said Mrs Zihweva. @NyembeziMu
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