Mental Health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stress of life, realize their abilities, learn well, work well and contribute to their community. It is an integral component of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, build relationships and shape the world we live in. Mental health is a basic human right and it is crucial to personal, community and socioeconomic development.
Mental health conditions include mental disorders and psychological disabilities as well as other mental states associated with significant distress and the risk of self-harm.
People with mental health conditions are more likely to experience lower levels of mental well-being, but this is not always the case.
Individual psychological and biological factors such as emotional skills, substance use and genetics can make people more vulnerable to mental health problems.
Exposure to unfavourable social, economic, geopolitical and environmental circumstances – including poverty, violence, inequality and environmental deprivation – also increases people’s risk of experiencing mental health conditions.
In Uganda, Mental illness is the major public burden. It is mostly caused by depression, anxiety and elevated stress levels that are very common and they even bring about suicidal thoughts if not managed very well.
The easiest way to control mental health should be through community-based mental health care, which is more accessible and acceptable than institutional care. Community based health care helps prevent human rights violations and delivers better recovery outcomes for people with mental health conditions.
The world always commemorates the World Mental health day on10th October every year and this is always done to create mental health awareness in order to reduce on the worrying number of mental disorders among the young people.
In Uganda, 22.9% of Uganda Children below the age of 18years and 24.2% of adults were suffering with mental illness in 2022 (Sociocultural Considerations Of Mental Health Care Report).
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