Civil servants urged to avoid overloading themselves with debts

The government has set up a counseling training program involving 30, 000 civil servants who are at risk of mental problems due to depression

Speaking when she launched the program in Embu County, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service and Gender Mary Kimonye said the government was in top gear to address the cases of mental health within the public service.

Kimonye said since the government rolled out the mental health program in public three years ago 29,653 public servants have received counseling.

She urged government workers to try and live within their means to avoid overloading themselves with unmanageable debts which she said could be contributing to depression.

Increased depression cases involving civil servants

According to Kimonye, the program, which was started after more cases of suicide and increased depression were witnessed in public service, will be expanded to ensure each candere and work unit has a mental health department that will champion and raise awareness on containment measures on cases of mental health.

''The champions will provide basic counseling services to colleagues who may be in depression or who may have undergone trauma and help in identifying those in need of referral to more specialized care,'' Kimonye said.

She noted that mental health was one of the areas that the government was putting more effort to address following the rise of cases in the world.

Kimonye stated that Kenya has 1.9 million people who have been affected by depression cases according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) placing Kenya sixth among the African Countries with high cases of depression.

She noted that youths aged 18-25 are the most affected by mental health, representing 10 per cent compared to 6.7 per cent of those affected between the age of 26 to 49 and 3.4 percent among the people aged above 50 years.