Concern as epilepsy, mental illness cases rise in Kayunga
Ms Precious Namazzi, the executive director of Precious Kids Foundation, interacts with people during the free medical camp at Wabwoko health centre III on Wednesday. Photo | Fred Muzaale
What you need to know:
- Mr Sirag Waiswa, the Kayunga regional referral hospital psychiatric clinical officer, revealed on Wednesday that cases of mental illness, particularly epilepsy had reached alarming levels, calling for “urgent” massive sensitization of the public.
Health activists and medical personnel in Kayunga District are concerned over the increasing cases of epilepsy and other mental illnesses.
Mr Sirag Waiswa, the Kayunga regional referral hospital psychiatric clinical officer, revealed on Wednesday that cases of mental illness, particularly epilepsy had reached alarming levels, calling for “urgent” massive sensitization of the public.
Mr Waiswa disclosed that on average, they attend to 40 cases of epilepsy a day at the hospital while for other mental illnesses such as depression, and anxiety disorder, they register about 50 cases a month.
Noting that the major causes of epilepsy and other mental illnesses are genetic factors, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, feeding on an unbalanced diet and stress among others, Mr Waiswa said that the trend is yet to change given that most sufferers don’t want to seek treatment from health facilities.
“95 per cent of the patients with mental illness seek treatment from witchdoctors and some only go to health facilities when they fail to get cured or no longer have money to pay the traditional healers,” he explained.
A local non-government organization, Precious Kids Foundation, has since launched a massive program to sensitise the public on issues related to mental health.
Ms Precious Namazzi, the executive director of the NGO, said the effects of Covid-19, financial constraints and domestic violence have caused a lot of stress among many communities, resulting in mental illness.
To avoid premature deaths among residents in the district due to lack of money to pay for medical care of treatable illnesses, Ms Namazzi said they carried out a free medical camp at Wabwoko Health Centre III in Kitimbwa sub-county, where over 10,000 patients received free diagnosis and treatment.
“Our plan is to carry out a free medical camp every three months and we want to roll this service to other sub-counties in the district and country because many of our people die prematurely,” she said.
Mr Waiswa, who blamed cultural beliefs on the increased cases of mental illness also said they are trying to use Village Health Team personnel to sensitize the masses on mental illness.
According to recent research, 14 million Ugandans are suffering from mental issues.
