World Mental Health Day: Commission seeks eradication of myths surrendering mental health

By Nneka Nwogwugwu

In commemoration of the World Mental health day, the Cameroon Human Rights Commission has recommended that the myths and beliefs about mental health that prevent families from seeking medical care should be challenged and broken down through awareness-raising for behavioural change.

The Commission also urged that lead communities should refrain from stigmatising and discriminating against persons with mental disorders and their families.

In a statement on Friday the president of the sub-commission in charge of Human Rights Promotion, Mrs Bauba Hawe Hamman, also noted that the Commission, in celebrating the 29th World Mental Health Day, emphasized the need to unite at the national, regional and global levels, to give special attention to mental health as a determinant in the human development process.

“The Commission, for its part, will spare no effort to continue to promote and protect the rights of persons with mental illnesses, through training workshops, awareness campaigns, advocacy, regular visits to all detention facilities, fact-finding missions, and through handling complaints and conducting self-initiated investigations.

“The World Mental Health Day was launched in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) and is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to educate about mental health, raise awareness and advocate against discrimination and social stigmatisation of people with mental disorders, and stimulate large-scale investment in this health area.”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health is a state of wellbeing in which a person can fulfil his or her potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, do productive work and contribute to his or her community.

Nearly one billion people suffer from a mental disorder, three million people die every year from the consequences of harmful use of alcohol and one person commits suicide every 40 seconds.

Considering the theme of this year’s celebration, set by the World Federation for Mental Health, which is “Mental Health in an Unequal World” highlights the fact that access to mental health services remains unequal, with between 75 per cent and 95 per cent of people in low- and middle-income countries unable to access mental health services.

The Commission noted that the preamble of the Cameroon Constitution of 18 January 1996 reaffirms that “all persons shall have equal rights and obligations. The State shall provide all its citizens with the conditions necessary for their development”

Further recalling that the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), ratified by the State of Cameroon on 20 June 1989, states in Article 16 that “every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health” (1) and that “State Parties to the present Charter shall take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick”

Considering that, according to Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), which entered into force on 22 June 2006, was signed by the State of Cameroon on 15 December 2009 and is in the process of being ratified, psychiatric institutions are places of deprivation of liberty.

Recalling Law No. 2019 / 014 of 19 July 2019 on the establishment, organisation and functioning of the Cameroon Human Rights Commission which, in its section 8, paragraph l, provides that: “as a Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, the Commission shall carry out regular visits to all places of detention (…) “; paragraph 2 of this section states that “within the meaning of this law, places of detention shall include, inter alia (…) psychiatric centres and hospitals

In Cameroon, few people, including members of the Defence and Security Forces who face the barbarity of terrorists in the Far North, North West and South West regions, benefit from good quality mental health services due to the insufficient number of health personnel and specialized health facilities, the statement noted.

The Commission urged African nations to assist people with mental illnesses, including: the operation “zero wandering mental patients in the streets of Yaoundé”, launched on 6 May 2021 by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Yaoundé City Council, which aims to bring these vulnerable persons, often abandoned by their families, to specialised health facilities to receive appropriate medical and psychological treatment, and assistance for social reintegration the introduction of courses in medical psychology, psychiatric semiology and psychiatric pathology in Cameroon’s medical faculties by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education the creation by the Institute of Psychotraumatology and Mediation of Cameroon (IPM), of a centre of psychotraumatology and mediation of Cameroon (CPM) on 14 December 2019, with its main activities being the reception, listening and psychological and psychiatric follow-up of victims of abuse, rape, physical violence, trauma and natural disasters.

The Commission encouraged the Government, development partners and some civil society organisations who are working tirelessly to promote and protect the right to physical and mental health of the people.

In highlighting its achievement, the commission visited the Jamot Hospital in Yaounde on 17 August 2021, the upscaling of the operation “zero mental patients wandering the streets of Yaoundé” to all the other municipalities in the country, the creation of Cameroon Psychotraumatology and Mediation Centres (CPM) in the other cities of the country, greater attention to mental health as an essential component of primary health care in the National Health Programme and the construction of a new centre entirely dedicated to mental health care.

In addition, it improves the living conditions of patients in psychiatric hospitals, including the specific conditions of women, children and the disabled adequate provision of equipment and medication to encourage families to bring mental health cases to such facilities, the provision of food rations for destitute mental patients and improving the working conditions of staff in psychiatric hospitals.