NewSpace2060

BOMA Mental Health Summit

Featured Speakers and Topics:

Addressing Mental Health in Africa

• Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Global CEO Amref; Co-Chair UHC2030; Board Member Africa CDC, Women Lift, SMG, Safaricom Foundation.
• Dominic Kamau Mwangi, Dean of Students and Lecturer in Positive Psychology at Tangaza University College; Doctoral Student of Psychology and Board Member of the Positive Psychology Association of Kenya (PPAK)
• Moitreyee Sinha, CEO and Founder, citiesRISE

Moderated by Victoria Rubadiri, Citizen TV news anchor.

Dominic starts by providing an overview of the landscape of mental health in Africa. Speaking of Kenya, he mentions that currently Kenya ranks 4th in Mental illness and 6th in depression. That 1/4 of the population has mental health challenges (since 2016). What are the most comment mental health issues?

Depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

Up to 42% whom go for primary health care, are for psychosomatic illnesses.

One of the issues is data collection. Due to lack of investment for infrastructure in dealing with mental health issue and also the number of medical professions in this field is rare. The issue of domestic violence, homicide and suicide are related.

Dominic speaks of psychological trauma of colonisation. He speaks of his personal experience of how the consequences are still there, of post election violence which memories remain clear. That there are structural issues that are still there.

Dr. Gitahi speaks of the challenges of how the health care is developed to deal with disease not necessarily mental health. Dr. Gitahi speaks of how the majority of people with mental health illness may not know it. They do not know they need to seek help.

Even community health strategies, which are key to integrating mental health packages does not appear. e.g. there are modules on infaction control, mental health is not often available as a service in health.

Many of the countries, like Kenya are trying to integrating into mainstream medical health, however it is treated separately.

source: facebook.com

Dominic starts discussing positive psychology and how the practice of psychology has shifted from looking at what is wrong with people, and now taking a more proactive approach to mental health.

So how does stigma look like?

How does justice look like?

What about families left behind?

How about education in education?

What about cultural factors?

Dominic speaks about how expressions of emotions in relation to mental concerns are not part of the lexicon. He also mentioned that there is a stigma where people would tend to turn to religion for resolve.

Another concern Dominic draws attention to, is the issue of language and speaks of good and bad when it comes to mental health. He stresses the importance of understanding the meanings of terms in relation to mental health.

source: wechangers.com

Dr. Gitahi talks about the issue of labels and how there are wrong assumptions of people being mad, even though they are suffering from mental illness.

Dr. Gitahi talks of hospitals in Kenya, how much of the challenge is simply a tip of the iceberg. He asks, what mechanisms are in place to assist those that need it?

Perhaps even if the patient themselves do not know?

Does the nurse or medical professional know what to do next?

source: vimeo.com

Dr. Gitahi then advocates for universal healthcare coverage regardless of income and financial status. He emphasises that the health care needs to serve those that most need it and that it ought to be people centred. Due to lack of understanding and stigmatism, Dr. Gitahi expresses strongly how mental health care needs to be covered, taken seriously and applied across the board.

What about during COVID19?

According to Dominic, one of the greatest problem, is that most people do not know they have a mental illness. If it is say Malaria and a cold, one can go to a doctor to find out. Whilst Dominic is hesitate to advocate self diagnosis, he is mindful to raise the concern so that people can look into health awareness and psychological associations that people can connect with.

Dominic, raises the red flag of not self diagnosis as professionals would be better able to diagnose and provide more reliable information. He raises the issue of lack of regulation and who are fully professionally qualified. Dominic also emphasies the importance of reflecting on the medical professionals whom patients are working with and ensuring that they are fully competent and qualified to treat relevant patients.

In terms of advice, Dominic talks about changes in one’s life, e.g. death, experience considered difficult. He starts with inviting people whom have experienced a significant change and/or loss of sleep could potentially be an issue which are simple signs which one could find out.

If a change of character e.g. enthusiasm lowers, interests, the things that use to interest you are symptoms that could be looked through.

source: psychologytoday.com

Dr. Gitahi then talks about the fact that there is still large parts of the world whom do not have access to technology, internet or computers or apps.

He mentions that whilst technology can do a great deal in terms of technology and it could assist us. But that it is a half way house, as technology is not necessarily assessible to all and is a divide.

More importantly, no matter what kind of assess an individual may have, it is important to seek professional help and not self diagnose.

[END]

Who am I?

Raghara KK, an artist and Founder of 64/1 invites us to ask who are we.

He speaks of loss, growth and pain. And reflecting on questions of who would you like to be?

Letting go of the past self and what are the key barriers of achieving what you want to be?

List them, even if they sound like you have hit a wall. What if that wall was just a question?

Imagine you want to go on a holiday and go out? And COVID19 happens.

You can ask yourself. Oh my I cannot go, everything is shutdown and then you say I cannot go to GOA.

But if you turn the barrier to the question how else can I go to the beach?

How else can I achieve that?

Speaking philosophically, Raghara describes everything we do is a construction with integrity.

Deconstruct and reconstruct time again and again.

At this point, what kind of questions could you be asking yourself?

What skills do you have?

What can you do with your imagination?

What are the possibilities?

If deconstruction and construction is a painful process, how best can we prepare for this?

What if the key cause of anxiety is pursuant of happiness? Free will?

What if there is no free will? Then would there be no anxiety?

Raghara shares with us on his journey – he spends time imagining his friends, and talk about the deepest vulnerability – not from the angle of self pity. Ask your friend how else can you shine?

This is a beautiful market for the art world.

How can we as a humanity can reinvent themselves?

Global South – how are you reinventing yourself?

Art plays an important role. True power is when you give yourself permission you give yourself the ability to change yourself, your fundamental truth and what you consider truth.

Are we willing to go through loss, healing and the hero’s journey?

Who am I becoming? What comes to you?

One is internal, one is external, who do I want to become. When you go with the intention to the world, either the Universe or you making it happen – it requires deep confidence.

If at this point, there is nothing to lose then take courage and go for it.

If we reframe, I am becoming more and more courageous…..

If we reframe, what if we are not survivors but people who thrive….

What role does art do to keep us sane?

source: childcreativitylab.org

Constructs, not reality, allows us to transcend, like a tool where appropriate to utilise along the path to grow emotionally….

Be it singing on zoom, playing piano, drawing using lots of positive emotions, love and compassion to express, share and connect with family, friends and the world at large.

source: CIO.com

Led by Dr. Deep Bali, he introduces Whole Brain to an audience of enthusiasts and those passionate about mental health. He speaks of the four quadrants and how different leadership around the world have been using the different quadrants.

For some it is about developing children’s brain, for others’ it is about surviving and Dr. Bali’s message is that we can all be adaptive, flexible and actually move into the different quadrants to develop and work to make life work for us.

Dr. Bali’s talk is about practical application about how we can be rationalists, we can think with our brains, however we could also utilise our emotional intelligence, health and wellbeing to deal with our environment, circumstances and people around us.

Drawing up the kind of language that leaders are using, Dr. Bali attempts to demystify the leadership quadrants in the whole brain and how when shifted, sends a different message or be it an emotionally different one, particularly those on the receiving end.

When there is so much misinformation in the news, media and online, it’s important that we assess what language people are using, which quadrant are they coming from and how do we manage, digest and understand it.

The whole brain theory was developed a while back and now it’s the time to better educate our selves to learn now to cope and thrive in COVID 19.

END