Safeguard mental health of Kenyans, body urges State
George Kebaso @Morarak
The International Institute for Legislative Affairs (IILA) is calling on the government to urgently put in place measures to safeguard the mental health of citizens in the event a total lockdown is declared to avert escalation of coronavirus cases.
In an interview with People Daily, Celine Awuor, the Institute’s programme officer in charge of capacity building and Medical Law writer, Elizabeth Mbugua, said going forward, decisions to be made require deliberate efforts to address mental health challenges posed by the pandemic.
Besides focusing on populations, the duo said actions should importantly target healthcare providers and caregivers.
“Should more cases be recorded in the days to come, the country may go into full lockdown as is the case in other countries and these are the times we need to be mindful of our mental health.
“These are the times the government needs to step in to ensure that Kenyans still enjoy the highest possible quality of life in the face of possible lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak,” said Awuor.
While self-isolation as has already been witnessed, further scaling down of commercial activities is likely to subject people who live from hand-to-mouth to desperation and low living standards.
Fix prices
“The government needs to ensure that people who are not able to fend for themselves without going to work every day are comfortable while self-isolating.
Our government should learn from the trade ministry in Rwanda which fixed prices for 17 food items including rice, sugar and cooking oil, and do the same and maybe, better so as to avoid hiking of food prices,” she added.
Mbugua urged the Ministry of Health to protect the mental health of all Kenyans, including healthcare workers, by publishing local mental health guidelines and establishing hotlines through which mental health specialists will be available for counselling during this Covid-19 crisis period.
“Just like the rest of the world, Kenyans are anxious about the future occurrences around Covid-19; we do not know what will happen but in the midst of all this, we should protect our health and support each other as much as possible, at all levels, to ensure that we come out of it healthy including mentally,” Mbugua, an advocate of the High Court, said.
The two attribute their concerns to the amount of stress and panic that was witnessed in the country when the first case was announced.
The announcement sent Kenyans into panic mode with people scrambling for household goods in bulk, while others started sending false information on social media.
“All these reactions being evidence that despite knowing the presence of the disease in other countries we were not prepared mentally to have the disease in our country,” they said.
Awour and Mbugua want Kenyans to adhere to the partial lockdown measures that have already been ordered as more cases continue to be recorded in the country.
As part of response and support strategies for countries in the face of Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation on March 12 published the ‘Mental Health and Psychosocial Considerations during Covid-19 Outbreak’ to act as guidelines on mental health for the psychological wellbeing of everyone during the outbreak.
The guidelines discourage attaching labels to people with the disease; as this is most likely to create stigma.
