WHO Decries Alcohol Use Amongst Teenagers In Africa
Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
World Health Organization, WHO, has expressed concerns about suicide rates and the exponential rates of alcohol use and abuse among adolescents as young as 13 years of age.
In a statement to mark the World Mental Health Day 2022, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said there is a dire need to strengthen regulatory systems so as to close the gaps that allow such young people easy access to alcohol, which she notes contributes to heavy episodic drinking rates as high as 80% among teens from 15 to 19.
A situation that poses serious threat to their education, and sets the stage for a lifetime of alcohol abuse, its associated risks of noncommunicable and other related diseases.
World Mental Health Day, often marked on tenth October every year, provides an opportunity to draw attention to Africa’s large and growing burden of mental health conditions, especially with children and adolescents worst impacted.
This year’s theme, “Make Mental Health and Wellbeing for All a Global Priority”, serves as a reminder that, after nearly three years, the social isolation, fear of disease and death, and the strained socio-economic circumstances associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to an estimated 25% global rise in depression and anxiety across the African Region.
Dr. Moeti, however, noted, that pre-pandemic, more than 116 million people were already estimated to be living with mental health conditions but inadequate financing for mental health continues to be the biggest limitation, negatively impacting efforts to expand Africa’s mental health workforce.
According to the WHO Regional Director, there are fewer than two mental health workers for every one hundred thousand people, the majority of whom are psychiatric nurses and mental health nursing aids adding that these scarce resources are concentrated at large psychiatric institutions in urban areas, while people at community and primary care levels are left critically underserved.
She stressed that even though up to 82% of Member States are receiving training on how to manage mental health conditions at primary care level, with up to 74% reporting that specialists are involved in providing appropriate training and supervision to primary health care professionals only two-thirds of Member States report having guidelines to integrate mental health into primary health care, while fewer than 11% are providing pharmacological and/or psychological interventions at the level.
African governments have also made some progress on mental health spending, which has risen to 46 US cents per person. But that is still well below the recommended US$2 per person, with mental health not featuring in national health insurance schemes.
To address the challenge, it is crucial that Member States follow through on the implementation of commitments they made at the Regional Committee in August 2022, when they endorsed the Framework to Implement the Comprehensive Global Action Plan 2013 to 2023 in the WHO African Region.
WHO in the African Region is also supporting task-sharing and integration of mental health into multisectoral programmes in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Mali. Examples include joint tuberculosis and mental health programming in Ghana and Kenya, and joint Neglected Tropical Diseases and mental health efforts in Nigeria.
Additionally, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe have been supported to complete mental health investment cases and they provide valuable base from which to make the case for increased investment in the neglected aspect of our health systems.
She urged Member States to prioritise the implementation of the Framework to Implement the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan in the WHO African Region especially increasing government expenditure on relevant services, and mobilising resources from partners.
Dr. Moeti, expressed the need for countries to strengthen the mental health and psychosocial response in humanitarian emergencies, including COVID-19 and Ebola, which have a significant negative impact on school-age children and health care workers as Mental health and psychosocial support are integral to any successful response.
She called on all to commit to working together to making me that health care accessible to all Africans by deepening the value afforded to mental health, and reshaping the environments that negatively impact mental health.
