but this time around the challenges as a result of international developments may affect the outcome. then there else is eda algiers, voters and denmark appear to be divided as they get ready to cast their ballots on tuesday, opinion poll, so it's unlikely the 2 main political blocks will get the majority needed to govern . asthma had better has more from copenhagen. this is an historic election with a record number of political parties buying for a bigger se in the parliament, 50 percent of the voters have not decided yet. which party they are going to vote for raising concerns about the potential over parliament was, is likely going to be the most fragmented parliament in the modern history of the country. this is an election mainly about inflation, wising, living costs, economic hardship, and also climate change. and there is a growing consensus in denmark that regardless of who's going to win the election,

the counter will continue to clamp down on immigration by miller sen. fredrickson is hoping to be able to maintain her lead in the election by being the strongest political party of the country to be able to reach out to the centrist to form a coalition. but there are chances that the fog white can gain more the bantam in the selection, upsetting the plans that the prime minister is hoping to implement for the country . ah hello again. the headlines on al jazeera, russia says it's unacceptable for ships carrying grain to pass through a black sea corridor, and i won't guarantee the safety of the vessels. moscow has suspended participation in a deal brokered by turkey and the un. it allowed ships to transport grain from ukraine's ports. ross as president vladimir putin has warned that he can do more after

a series of missile and drone attacks, the ukraine. the airstrikes hit critical infrastructure and the sid intensity is leaving many people without power and running water. he was president joe biden has told oil companies to lower fuel prices for americans or face a higher tax rate. biden says, many oil companies have been profiteering from the war in ukraine. south korea's president in his cabinet members have paid their respects at one of the memorials to victims if a crowd crushing soul an investigation has been opened after at least a $156.00 people were killed during a halloween festival. visitor as to chang high's, disney lands have been trapped inside. unable to leave until they show a negative coven 19 test. the resort announced that would close immediately. shanghai reported 10 locally transmitted cases on saturday. search and rescue teams in the philippines are still looking for bodies. after a tropical storm naggie, at least a $110.00 people died. dozens are missing more than 800000 or displaced. 9

people had been arrested in connection with the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in western india. at least a 141 people died, wendy structure came apart on sunday. you're up to date with the headlines on al jazeera, we'll have more news coming up at the top of the hour, but up next, it's the stream. thanks for watching. talk to al jazeera, we ask, do you believe that women of afghanistan was somehow abandoned by the international community? we listen, we api issue the price for the war against terrorism. what's going on in some money? we meet with global news makers. i'm talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera. i welcome to the stream, i'm josh rushing, sitting and for me,

okay. the world health organization is leading a public awareness campaign aimed at tackling high rates of death by suicide across africa. and it's urgent governments across the continent to do more for people in crisis. so today we ask, why is there a mental health emergency in africa? hey, look, if you're watching this on youtube, see that little box like right there. we have a live stream producer waiting, get your questions and comments to me so i can get him to our expert turned the show. so let's do this together and it's really important show today i can use your help, but i want to warn you, we're going to be talking about some sensitive issues that include mental health and death by suicide. ah, joining us to discuss the mental health crisis across africa, avi way for non he is a senior officer at united for global mental health. she is in cape town, south africa, liska cosa, is founder at mind lab africa,

mental health care nonprofit. she joins us from kampala, uganda, and from jose nigeria, we have ruth tilley kado. she is a journalist in a mental health advocate. alright, avi way, i'd like to begin with you. and so you're sitting in south africa and yeah, 6 of the 10 countries in the world that had the highest suicide rates are in sub saharan africa. but read those countries are actually within the borders of south africa. so i'm just, i want to ask you what's going on there, what's happening with mental health in south africa? so yeah, as you said, we definitely have a mental health crisis in south africa. the biggest challenge is that we have a challenge of avoidance. we don't have the right policies, and there's still quite a lot of stigma when it comes to mental health challenges and mental health as a whole. and we have 23 suicide deaths in south africa every day. and then

$460.00 attempts of suicide deaths in south africa every single day. so at the moment it really is a crisis that we're in and we don't have enough services as a country. there's a 93 percent treatment gap. so it means that the number of people that need access to care and the people that receive care, i'm not enough. we don't have enough services. a mental health policy lapsed in 2020 and it has not yet been updated. many of the mental health service workers a not trained enough to serve the people that are in their communities. and so that really leaves us in a space where we are constantly being reactive to the mental health crisis. and not necessarily being preventative towards positive mental health. whether you one is trying to do this campaign. i want to bring her doctor joseph uh bora,

who's the director for program management. that the who, here's what he has to say about this. millions of people needing care do not have access to service use with encrypted conditions leading to staggering debussy, pearson social disability, substance abuse and even suicide ended and africa therapy come to john as the highest 3 top suicide globally. iran 11 out of 100000 people, die by suicide every year. and isn't it bo, give global average of 9 a 100000 people? so liz is talking about the suicide rights there, and i to me, suicides in this issue are the canary in the coal mine. but they're also kind of the tip of the iceberg of a mental health crisis. i don't know if we need to focus as much necessarily on

suicide as why those numbers are so high and that's kind of the broader mental health crisis. now you're in, you god, you're joining us in the middle of a power outage. is that right in? in uganda, you got about a one, a 1000000 chat in the air of kampala. so you, i think we have a delay that that's okay. i'll be patient as my question, but in uganda you have a one and 1000000 chance of meeting a psychiatrist. meaning for every 1000000 people that live there, you have one psychiatrist, but as long as you're in a power outage right now. how does the country, i guess, trias, what they need to address here? do they address, getting you more steady electricity, or do they address? getting more psychiatrist. i thank you for your question. you know, very tricky question, but of course would be to get more electricity rate. we've not, but it to

a point where we take mental health very, very seriously. like that for population of 4546000000. 1 psychiatry. yes. and it's very disheartening. you know, we can go, we can blame all of our africa, mental health trying to do, we can say, or the lack of awareness. however, they are people on ground doing that, that work, right? that's what we do. that's what i really does rate, but we have, we have a policy that we haven't access, right? so it's not just enough to say it is nor when it or to blame it on stigma. but we need to ask ourselves at that particular question where, what are we doing to address it? what action are we taking to address the mental health crisis and i'll tell you, feel free, we aren't doing enough. okay. just if i me don't work. i'm coming to you, i'm coming to you and you're here in my area. actually want to set you up with

a bit of a package from out to 0 reporter mohammed address. he did this, he was showing kind of children who have been in boca rom camps and they're receiving this kind of psychological support after the camps, it was run this clip born and raised in brook where i'm kemp's. these children are experiencing for the 1st time. what it means to be a child. oh, they're part of the 6000 victims and family members of both auto fighters who send it to nigerians to georgia forces in the past few months. after a few weeks of psychological support. those helping them are surprised by the rapid trustful mission. they see you see a lot of them coming into desert space thinking very distress team can hungry. what alpha week of engagement. oh, because me and give them a call 31 sometime, depending on how we see that one ability and all of that. so we offer the engagement, you see a lot of changes,

you see them interacting before you see them taking leadership role to see them doing for martha. so ruth, watching this clip, it seems kind of promising. actually it seems you, there are a lot of children who are getting the psychological support that they might need is that common in nigeria is that, is that the situation there where you are? ok, thank you very much. just thank you for having me on the show. so like lee said, well, also my jury at the challenge is not necessarily that we don't have the doctor's or there was a lack of awareness. that challenge mostly is the fact that we have a silent culture. a culture where something just a couple you can talk about. and so what's in the video, you know, it is really hopeful, i'm excited to see because nigeria and know they know that you know this young people need this intervention. it will people who are just kidnapped by vocal her,

or bandy, need these interventions because when they come back into the society, i tell you not the same people, not the same. people are all who come back into society and it's difficult for them to acclimatize so they also need this psychological health intervention is such a way that you know, they can come back and be normal people because what they see in those bushes is know what normal people should go through and so yeah, there is a lot of intervention now. there is a lot about when that's the challenge is the idea of the silent cultural where, you know, we don't want to talk about mental issues. nobody wants to identify as having mental issues. and i think you're hitting a chord for list here because and uganda the, the word suicide, right? i guess the word suicide itself is terrible. yeah. and the act of it is actually get criminalized. i don't even understand how that plays out yet. to touch on the yes. so yes, suicide is criminalized. it's it's,

it's an offense. i'm and it never made sense to me because what do you do when someone dies from? so they say, you know, do you try and do, what do you charge them with? it's never made sense to me. and this is, i was actually one of the issues that were highlighted during while suicide prevention day last month. and so yes, there is still a lot of sticking around the web suicide. it's not easy to say speak about in public, i mean as a suicide. and so via, it's a part of my story that i often omit when i am doing my work around awareness and advocacy work around around mental health. so we are, we are also living in sort of a, you know, silent culture. it's very taboo. even from you know, a cultural perspective, if someone died from suicide, they don't receive

a proper burial over the past year. i know people close to me that have died from suicide or, you know and loved ones of people close to me. and that has been that, that instant that has been the situation, right? so i still need, we have a very long way to go or go in terms of getting people to, or of addressing. and you know, understanding this over addressing the stigma around suicide and just i keep saying it is our inability to talk about suicide that in the longer and cause is more suicide rates are here. are you tube audience? and let me tell you something. if you don't know much about the world, you 2 comments, it's not a place where there's a lot of gratitude and positivity, but we actually are getting a lot of gratitude for talking about this today. so maybe people are tired of it being taboo and other let me throw a couple of comments, were actually getting on twitter and from you tube here. this is from someone in

the real ship banassi tr viddy. they say the stigma surrounding mental illness in africa is so bad, is now become denial. it's easy to jump to conclusions such as witchcraft. people replace prescription with prayer, when things turn to work, they say god's will. he goes on to say, a priest, a pastor, a shake, a clan elder is more trusted than a medical doctor or psychiatrist, a patient refusing prescription from a doctor in favor of rituals. pisses me off because it's suicide. bait this business in which integrity is obsolete. sad individuals are unaware why he had a lot to say, but anyway, can you pick up on that? oh yeah, definitely it's. it's something that i think in every african culture, regardless of where you are, it's the same thing. culture and religion are embedded in african just put the everyday life of africans and with mental health. i think what exasperated the crisis apart from the silent culture is that immediately when people are showing

signs off going into a depressive episode, or if they communicate even feeling suicidal. immediately they are relegated to the background. they told that they need half an app. i'm culturally, they're told, i know in south africa it's usually associated with an ancestral calling. i'm so what people call over plaza and you're meant to go and go into initiation for trip being a traditional healer or if you need to go for prayer. so all these different elements of what it is in terms of african culture to be viewed as experiencing a mental illness. but again, there's also an opportunity, i think, with all of that there's always an opportunity. so now it's coming back to how do we actually look at the different systems and societies were functioning in and actually develop programs that work. so integrating more community based services is something that i advocate for a lot of african societies because sitting across

a psychiatrist or side how to just immediately the walls are app. there's a level of guardedness, there's a level of holding back and, and already there's just so much have you sitting within a person. and i think if we bring in elements of community, because community is something that is so important to africans, that in actually when we integrate mental health services, it's important for us to also remember what is culturally appropriate. what can work for people that are operating in the society and we can just add on the element of mental while b? no, we have oh, if i me good, we're jumping. ok. so he's a, you know, my great aunt actually committed suicide. so i'm married now, what if my husband's family knew that someone, him, i mean they had committed suicide. they would not talk to me with a long school. and that is amazing because i just got to know they like 3 years ago, i was talking to my mom. i don't know if you intend to tell me, you know,

she just put it out there. and i'm like, what, what did you say? you know, she goes on tells me the story, but then no, i'm happy that you know, several years down the line we can see down and talk about this. so the people know that you want, if someone in your family has committed suicide or someone, you know, a lot, one has committed suicide. the stigmatizing sean has to stop. because if we don't stop the stigma, evasion that people will not be willing to come over and talk about the mental health situation. you know, like you said, joshua alia there, read a lot. that leads to suicide. it will not last trauma, trauma will be, will don't go into depression. but here he will not lead to us trauma. we don't pay attention to re, someone stays, i'm from eyes and everyone laughed. and it like really traumatized on time because it was, you know, so these are some discussions that we need to talk about. more often. the sort of people knows that they need to get help when they are really mentally pressed over

it. i wonder if we didn't do you a bit of a disservice by showing that clip from boca harass with the children because they represent a very extreme example. i think most people would agree might need some psychological help, but really the problems much more broad as much more ubiquitous. and it's much more common than someone who's been something as extreme as growing up in a book or her arm camp. right. i mean, it's like we all deal with it. right? yes, we do. absolutely. and i would say that in a geri air, for in la la as it it, we don't necessarily have to be in the book of her. i'm come to feel the pressure. because with everything going around, we feel like so many things are not work in. so we almost feel like everyone is sort of like india, you know, book or her. i'm calm sort of way because we are so mentally pressure you're, you're trying to get just the littlest thing to work like does good health service

care. you can afford that, you know, bored, non people can afford food. so that was a lot of pressure on people. so these are the things that, you know, cumulate into all of you know, so side and, you know, the bigger things that we're talking about now. but they're reese in nigeria, they're really a lot of mental pressure. and like, you know, what, over it affects the men more than the women because most men don't like to talk about their mental issues. you know, well, rate, right. and why did you said that? because we actually have a, we can come back. i know you had more to say there, but we have a video comment from someone in the stream community. they sent us into us. the name is eddie kamani. they're about as far away in the cotton as i get from you there and kenya on the other side. and he is a mental health awareness advocate here took this up. but shifted disposable mental health. i wish to share my pass. my journey have learned that you cannot ignore you wish once over manian 40th class on this half. as far fuko and mental health,

i believe that governments and institutions and workspaces should fund more mental health programs. the solution lies in integrating mental health within the overall health care system and workspaces. and as africans as individuals, out like us to seek mental health move from just being a conversation to action, where we can start doing things and embracing our wellness and fighting the stigma that said owns mental health. so wrote, there's a man talking about the stigma and talking about his own mental health journey. what do you think about that and africa? man, i know that he's very impressive. very, very impressive. i call an old man, especially those in my area. when you have issues, you know what happens back home. when most men have mental health issues be the result of drinking. they become alcohol, is that the way they take out their mental health issues? they just drink the tuple and come back home and sleep all come back home,

you know, in bulk get involved in order biases of domestic violence and things like that. that is what they do. so if and africa man can talk about it. i think that now is the time for all men to come up and say, look, i am depressed, i have had issues, maybe in my office. i have pressure here on day. i am utterly depressed. and i need to know now is the time to talk about this because me, there's only a healthy person that can be helpful to cite the betty kamani. they're saying in your praises here on the stream lesson. was that josh? yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it. i'll be way go for it. and so with what, just going back to the bulk of her, i'm camp and wax, and ruth had mentioned. so there's something called toxic stress. if you're constantly exposed, am to stressful situation adverse experiences that actually increases your threshold of experiencing what we call toxic stress. that means that in the long term that increases your risk of mental illness increases the chances of

suicidality increases. chances of anxiety am at risk behavior. so with all of that, it means that the preventative mental health measures are very important. yes, it's important for us to treat mental illness and also provide safe spaces for when people are suicidal. but i really believe from a young age that we need to put in preventative, mental health measures. in other words, we teach people how to find safe spaces and communicate their feelings. teach people how to be able to become self resilient, how to calm themselves down. i know right now self, kay is like the buzzword, but at the end of the day, that is a part of being mentally well. and the reality is we all have mental health. it's not just mental illness, but mental health as a whole is a spectrum. so every one of us sitting here have mental health that how do we maintain positive mental health? how do we take care of our minutes or half? it's like brushing your teeth every day. do something every day that contributes

towards a positive mental well b. mirsky. pick up on her i'm yes, i'll just quickly go back to what ruth shared about, you know, addressing men's mental health. so what we've noticed, what we've observed over the years is generally in the health care system. women have better health seeking behavior than men. so even if it was something like a cold or during colvin, that woman is more likely to seek out. i treatment and health health care. yeah, treatment of some kind am, which isn't the same for men. however, addressing mental health and mental health challenges amongst men, what we've discovered, what we've seen locally is it's important for us to consider rich reaching men where they are. yes they have, they, they suffer more from, you know, they suffer more from depression, suicide rates are high among men. so they are the most bull bull. when he comes to these conversation, sions help them. how do we ensure that you know,

they have this covers, you're breaking up your worth and want to mean it and know where to find them. oh there says ruth, one of the things i read was the, then we look at the suicide numbers, but they represent a successful suicide temper, represent one and 20 people who actually attempted it. meaning the problem is much drive 20 times larger than what the actual numbers say. can we use the last few minutes of the show here? everyone has some tips on what you would advise people who do, who might find themselves in the mental health crisis routine. do you have some tough like that that, that the you could share? yes, i think the 1st one would be, i think, your josha da, sorry. i think the 1st step would be that b r, where then there ries and mental health be our way. you must be aware, you know, we're very easy to seek health when we have like a headache. we have malaria back in west africa and people just go to the hospital

. so when you have you filled out mental pressure, it could be as little as just feeling traumatized about something or just feeling depressed about some issues. please go on, seek help, don't wait until it becomes b. so be a way to be very aware that there was something called mental health and it could affect your project, cbc. idlers don't do it. it's all rude, says be aware and seek health was do you, do you have some tough for people? and there are people in our youtube right now talking about their challenges i, what i would say is, and it's okay not to be okay. and it's the act that acknowledgement, preston, 1st of all that eventually leads you to adam, will lead you to, to, to seek the support that she'd need. so it's important to be mindful, i'd say it's okay, it's okay not to be okay. the same well have a headache or lou is the same way i need to address, you know, whatever mental health challenge are going through at the time. i'm avi way. or

what are you got force just to follow on the ladies again identifying your feelings is very important, but also reaching out to 24 hour suicide help lines. i know they are quite a few in africa here in south africa, we have the south african depression, and anxiety group is a 24 hour helpline in terms of suicide. and you can call them and speak to someone . it's an anonymous line. and then also reaching out to community groups that work with people that are meeting mental health services. so really just taking those steps, even chantel steps was speaking to someone that you trust. yeah. and that, that is my, my main encouragement. all right, so that's i think that's where we're going to end it today. i want to take all 3 of my guest abi way liz. ruth, for be more to come on and talk about something that is taboo. but it's even more important. and if you're out there and you need help, i promise there are people that want to help you. there are crisis lines that you

can get to. so that's all we have time for today. but you can always find us online at stream dot al jazeera dot com. take care of yourself, right. thanks for watching. ah. generation football me to lead players using that platform for good. the most important thing is given access to opportunities. you know, the world can bassoon in different ways and highlight how the world's most popular game is helping change lives and communities. football federation asked me to help

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