South Sudan seeks support from India to tackle mental health challenges

mental patient

South Sudan said on Friday it will seek technical and financial support from India to help build its first 120-bed ultra-modern hospital aimed at tackling a high mental health burden.

Riek Gai Kok, South Sudan’s minister of health, said that mental health is a major concern in the world’s youngest country as it intensifies reconstruction after five years of civil strife.

“I believe this is a very big opportunity to help this country to transform its health sector. We have a serious challenge of addressing mental cases,” Kok said in Juba during a meeting with a high-level delegation from India.

Kok said Indian offering to build the mental health facility came at the right time when South Sudan urgently needed assistance to strengthen the mental health sector, noting that the country has only one physiatrist.

“We are not ashamed to tell the real situation because it was not our making,” said Kok.

He said the ongoing hardships and violence associated with the conflict in South Sudan have had pervasive effects on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of the affected population.

S.D. Moorthy, Indian Ambassador to South Sudan, said the team of more than five doctors came to Juba to understand the real health situation the South Sudan citizens face, including how to help the country tackle health issues.

“We are ready to build the mental facility, including providing medical equipment and also training of human capital that will deliver quality services to the citizens of South Sudan,” said Moorthy. Enditem