BY SHARON SIBINDI NATIONAL GALLERY OF ZIMBABWE (NGZ) in Bulawayo has partnered with First Mutual Health to host a health and wellness workshop for arts practitioners this Friday.
The workshop which will be facilitated by a specialist doctor, under the theme, Understanding Mental Health In The Visual Arts.
In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style on Thursday, the gallery’s acting regional director Silenkosi Moyo said the workshop seeks to destigmatise mental health.
“The need for mental health services has increased in Africa particularly among vulnerable populations like women. Depression used to be such a non-issue in African societies that African languages never bothered to create a word for it. Worryingly the sufferers are disproportionately women,” she said.
“While we currently don’t have reliable data about the nature of mental health in the visual arts in Zimbabwe, researchers have identified that specific characteristics of the creative sector work environment are likely to develop mental health challenges.”
“The programme is meant to provide a discussion outlet for sharing information on understanding mental health signs and symptoms as well as remedies for the artists. Visual arts and African spiritually as related to mental health are also often interlinked,” she said.
Added Moyo, “The COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant challenges has only exacerbated mental stress. There is need to develop strategies that respond specifically to the ways in which our work negatively affects our mental health.”
Moyo said there is need to develop mechanisms to deal with mental disorders and do away with the misconceptions around the issue.
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