Mental health facility set for Vihiga county

Vihiga County government is set to establish mental health facility and hire enough personnel to handle the high number of mental problem reported in the county.

 Vihiga governor Dr Wilber Ottichilo while addressing Vihiga residents at Emuhaya health facility yesterday which is being upgraded to Level Four said the facility will have mental health section.

 Ottichilo said Vihiga County is having a high number of people suffering from mental problems who are not well attended to. He said his government is determined to establish mental health facility like Mathare Hospital with qualified doctors to cater for the rising numbers.

 He noted that most of those people who suffer mental problem are violent and to take them to hospital in Nairobi or Kakamega is hard task.

 He said some patients end up developing permanent mental problem due to delay or failure to get treatment.

 “We are going to establish at least one mental health facility in Vihiga to cater for the rising number of such patients. The families with people suffering from mental problem are facing it tough to handle such people,” said Ottichilo.

 He said the county medical facilities face a lot of challenges while attending to the mental cases as they are only two mental health officers in the whole of Vihiga County.

“We would consider recruiting more personnel and facilitate training of health workers on primary skills to handle mental health cases “said  Ottichilo

 He said: “We have a wide range of mental cases and 60 per cent  of them are as a result of drug abuse. The rest are due to family related issues, failure to attend to pre-natal clinic sessions in children and mothers too. We also have a portion that is as a result of depression as a result stress that may be brought in by challenges in life.”