Mental Health Money Can't Just Follow Bombs, Bullets And Trauma

Two years after South Sudan gained independence, Dr. Inka Weissbecker toured the young country's only mental health facility.

The hospital looked more like a prison ward. Patients were sedated, living in their own filth; a traumatized young girl wandered the hallways unattended; people with schizophrenia had no medication. Weissbecker, global mental health and psychosocial advisor for the International Medical Corps^[1], brought the tragedy to potential donors, imploring them to fund better mental health services.

Her plea fell on deaf ears.

"They thought, 'South Sudan is not ready for mental health. The country has bigger problems,'" she recalls with frustration.

Mental health disorders affect one in four people^[2] around the world and even more in low-and-middle- income countries riven by strife. Still, the problem is often overlooked in light of other pressing development priorities.

Barcroft Media via Getty Images A young boy pictured at a refugee camp on April 2, 2017 in Juba, Sudan.

The civil war and the atrocities that civilians were forced to witness have had significant repercussions on the IDPs' mental health. 'People in the PoC are so traumatized. We lost our homes. Some people lost their entire family', says one resident in PoC 1. -The only thing we can do is to cry to the international community to force our leaders to bring a change in the country. Please bring a change to the government of South Sudan. Get us, IDPs living in the PoC, out of here-. PHOTOGRAPH BY Natalia Jidovanu / Le Pictorium / Barcroft Images London-T:+44 207 033 1031 E:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - New York-T:+1 212 796 2458 E:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - New Delhi-T:+91 11 4053 2429 E:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.barcroftimages.com (Photo credit should read Natalia J/Le Pictorium/Barcroft / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

It wasn't until civil war broke out^[3] in South Sudan that mental health funding poured in, as the world's attention turned to children with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatized civilians.

Money for mental health only follows bombs, bullets and trauma, says Weissbecker, while a growing mental health crisis^[4] remains ignored.

For many, the logic is inescapable. In the hierarchy of needs, lifting people out of poverty and ensuring they are fed comes before mental health treatment.

But this thinking crumbles when you look at the massive ripple effect of untreated mental health disorders.

Studies show a relationship between mental health conditions and unhealthy lifestyles, leading to higher rates of cardiovascular disease^[5], diabetes^[6] and obesity^[7], as well as drug and alcohol abuse^[8]. Health-care systems in developing or crisis-plagued regions cannot handle the strain. Low-income countries average one psychiatrist for every two million people and spend less than one per cent^[9] of their health budgets on mental health.

Institutions are much more disruptive to patient's lives, and carry a greater stigma in areas where education and awareness are lacking.

Typically, when developing countries do invest in mental health, the money doesn't go to outreach and prevention but to mental hospitals. Institutions are much more disruptive to patient's lives, and carry a greater stigma in areas where education and awareness are lacking.

Donors and international organizations are often no better, explains Weissbecker. "When conflict breaks out, that's when people start paying attention."

The international community has made tremendous strides delivering medicines, containing outbreaks and fighting disease around the world.

Now it must do the same for mental health.

Arif Hudaverdi Yaman/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Mentally ill people are seen at a psychiatric hospital at Azez town of Aleppo, Syria on Sept. 11, 2016.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals^[10] include mental health alongside other focuses of development. This inclusion^[11] recognizes mental health treatment as a human right, one that's key to empowering growth and prosperity in all countries.

We need to do more. We need to fund and train more psychiatrists and doctors, build community-based mental health services, and help break the cultural stigma associated with treatment. These are the types of solutions that should be talking points at the World Health Organization annual meeting^[12] on mental health, in time for World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10.

In Canada, we're a long way from achieving our goals but we've started to recognize the social and economic benefits^[13] of investing in mental health. It's time we applied the same standards around the world. And we don't have to wait for the trauma of conflict.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are the co-founders of theWE movement^[14],which includes WE Charity, ME to WE Social Enterprise and WE Day. For more dispatches from WE, check out WE Stories^[15].

References

1. ^{^} International Medical Corps (www.internationalmedicalcorps.org.uk)
2. ^{^} one in four people (www.who.int)
3. ^{^} broke out (www.bbc.com)
4. ^{^} growing mental health crisis (www.cfr.org)
5. ^{^} cardiovascular disease (www.camh.ca)
6. ^{^} diabetes (www.thelancet.com)
7. ^{^} obesity (www.obesitynetwork.ca)
8. ^{^} drug and alcohol abuse (www.ccdus.ca)
9. ^{^} less than one per cent (cdn1.internationalmedicalcorps.org)
10. ^{^} United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (www.un.org)
11. ^{^} inclusion (www.who.int)
12. ^{^} annual meeting (www.who.int)
13. ^{^} social and economic benefits (www.mentalhealthcommission.ca)
14. ^{^} WE movement (www.we.org)
15. ^{^} WE Stories (www.we.org)

Other References

CBD Oil for Anxiety (https://www.drugscience.org/cbd-oil-for-anxiety)