Up to 75% of people experiencing mental distress in Uganda do not seek care from hospitals or professional health providers, highlighting a major gap in access to mental health services.
Vincent Mujune, Country Director of the NGO StrongMinds Uganda, says that the use of traditional mental health providers is gaining recognition even among the scientific community, pointing to the urgent need for more accessible, community-based mental health care.
Speaking at the closure of the Uganda National Conference on Health, Human Rights and Development, Mujune said solving the country’s mental health challenges requires a multi-sectoral approach, noting that the Health Ministry can do only so much with a budget allocation of about one percent of the health sector’s total funding.
“What are we seeing? With only fifty psychiatrists serving over 46 million Ugandans, we cannot rely solely on hospitals to meet mental health needs. A collaborative approach is key.”
StrongMinds has begun training Village Health Teams to provide basic mental health services, enabling community-level detection of cases that require hospital attention. Yet, Mujune warns, many people who need hospital care are still turning to churches and traditional shrines for treatment.
Dr. Hafisa Lukwata, Commissioner in charge of Mental Health and Prevention of Substance Abuse at the Ministry of Health, acknowledged the complexity of mental health care in Uganda. She noted that while the government has established 14 mental health units in regional referral hospitals—each with 36 beds to reduce crowding at Butabika Hospital—these facilities remain largely underutilized as communities continue seeking alternative care.
“We renovated Butabika, yet many still prefer traditional routes, meaning people are not accessing care.”
Dr. Lukwata emphasized that addressing rising mental illness rates requires tackling the broader social determinants of mental health, including poverty, stigma, and economic factors. She highlighted gaps in public systems, such as the absence of mental health assessments for civil servants or during antenatal care, despite the prevalence of postpartum depression among mothers.
More than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), with conditions such as anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls. While many countries have bolstered their mental health policies and programmes, greater investment and action are needed globally to scale up services to protect and promote people’s mental health…
The new findings published in two reports – World mental health today and Mental Health Atlas 2024 – highlight some areas of progress while exposing significant gaps in addressing mental health conditions worldwide.
