AFRICA is facing a high incidence for suicide standing at 11,5 per 100 000 people with 18 per 100 000 of men being the highest rate globally, an official has said.
Speaking during the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) Mental Health Leadership Training Programme in Harare on Monday this week, World Health Organisation (WHO) mental health focal person Regional Office for Africa Chido Rwafa said the region was facing several mental health challenges apart from suicide.
Rwafa said Africa had the highest suicide rate among the other regions.
“We know right now it's estimated that some of the common conditions are depression, anxiety, alcohol use disorders, substance use disorders,” she said.
“We also have challenges with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia; have challenges with neuro-developmental problems like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, among others.”
Rwafa said the training was essential as it would be a key to advocating for mental health system strengthening.
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“We do need leaders to advocate for policy reform, for policy change, to do with mental health, to make sure that our policies are rights-based and that they are in line with the challenges that we are facing in Africa at the moment,” she said.
Rwafa said many of the African mental health policies, legislation and strategies were outdated which made them irrelevant to the challenges countries were facing.
“We hope that these leaders will be part of the advocates or even part of the teams that are part of that reformation process.
“We also are hoping that leaders in Africa will rally behind some of the regional strategies and frameworks that member States have endorsed,” she said.
Rwafa said there was a need for changes in terms of access to medication where it's needed and also in terms of data systems to be able to capture local data and know exactly how many people are struggling with a certain condition and how to get to them.
Speaking at the same event, Michael Odeidi, the principal technical officer for NCD in the Division of Injuries and Mental Health at Africa CDC headquarters said the programme came about after looking at the mental health burden in Africa.
He said it was also influenced by the need to capacitate mental health advocates, professionals in a bid to advocate and promote mental health in the region.
“The Mental Health Leadership Programme has been running since 2024 and for Zimbabwe, this is their second cohort to run this course. Last year they also had a similar course.
“The short course leadership programme is being run in five different universities across the five regions of Africa. For the southern region, we have the University of Zimbabwe,” he said.
The training is being run for the next two weeks with participants drawn from 14 African countries.