Peer support strong pillar of mental health

During this mental health awareness month of May, it is critical that we pose and think of those in our midst with mental health issues.

Spare a thought for those dependent on psychiatric medications, whose prices have shot through the roof.

Think about the ones in mental health institutions that are not so habitable or lack essential facilities. How about those who are violated in the community and have been cast aside with the escapist saying that “every market has its mad man”.

Openness and awareness have increased over the years about what it means to have a mental health problem but there is still a need to address the stigma and discrimination that arise when such as person discloses their status. Talking about the subject in the early 2000s was hard but also those who started advocacy then managed to build strong communities of support.

Peer support is a concept that has been embraced by many in the mental health space. Oftentimes, people with mental health problems struggle to find acceptance from those nearest to them — say, family, friends or workplace colleagues. But not only has joining a peer support group been documented as among the many ways such people have found a home but also many of us have built our strengths in advocacy.

But it was not always easy, for we also lost colleagues and friends to suicide. We remember them. Still, we have made long-lasting friendships and been able to support others to come back from the edge of the precipice. As peers who have come together to offer one another psychosocial support, times as difficult as what we are experiencing with the pandemic is a call to us to be even more creative in our support.

Since we cannot meet to offer one another emotional support in person, that has called for creative ways of being together even though we are apart. We now congregate twice a month virtually, on WhatsApp, and are able to reach out, listen and lend support to one another.

The spirit of camaraderie can go further than psychosocial support into other aspects of financial support. With many members in self-employment, the epidemic has also made it very difficult financially and now even accessing medicine, for example, becomes hard.

For many people with mental health problems, who are also recognised by law as persons with disabilities, it is difficult to access government support under the cash transfer programme as they mostly face difficulties obtaining the disability card. Most of them, having no medical insurance, have to finance their medication.

Spending close to Sh30,000 every month on medication, psychotherapy and doctor visits is a huge burden to both the people with mental health problems and their caregivers; hence, over time, we have been advocating easing of accessing critical government support through disability incentives.

But even as such people come together under the peer support models, as one way to ensure that they lead a holistic life, there should be a deliberate official effort to address social determinants of health such as poverty and trauma in addition to investing in accessible, affordable and available quality mental healthcare services in our communities.