ah, why are they so invisible to the larger public? ah, we decided to ask them. what is the poetry the secret of the house about their struggles and dreams for possibility of huge they have so much to lose . shattering the glass ceiling women in architecture. this has to be really, really good. starts april 20th on d, w. hello and welcome to another exciting edition of the 77 percent. the show where we talk with and to each other about issues affecting us zambia passed a mental health law in $2910.00, but it's implementation is still patchy. sh in this week's treat, debate,

the 77 percent heads to massacre to find out why. despite the law, people who have mental health problems can't get the help they need. take a look ah, and thy d depression, bipolar disorder, mental health issues like these are seen as taboo topics in many african societies with limited access to medical health go services. young africans to struggling with their mental health are left to their own devices. the d. w. 77 percent is in zambia, precisely lusaka to look at this silent epidemic. sagal salad epidemic, of course, talk to the people at the heart of its advocacy. and i'm going to start off with here. mr. benjamin who has 10 years experience of course are talking about mental health 1st before just give us an overview of the mental health situation here in zambia. we have most of our services highly centralized in osaka, and this services ah, ah,

we are with government institutions and are private practice coming up. i do have a number um is trish ones that are also providing ah, like telephone counseling or token of services just to make sure that access to meant to have services is made available, accessible and affordable even to those one within the 2nd. oh, let me just come to i natal my here. benjamin has been in the advocacy for over 10 years. you started just do years ago. tell us what has been your focus is, is that for the past decade, a lot of walk has not been done in this. that made you want to start your own advocacy as well. so my focus has been on raising mental health awareness and ending the stigma that surrounds mental health. because in the past, people have been glued to or you know, have stuck to these misconceptions about mental health such as the belief that mental illness is a curse or, you know, it's demon position. so my focus has been to debunk those myths and make people

realize that mental illness is something that can attack anyone. and we have duncan here who yourself has experienced this live. talk to us about the experience with mental health. how was that phase of your life? like i struggled with depression and non factory for about 12 years. in that moment, i became suicide by the age of 10. and at the age of 16, i studied attempting suicide. i did my at the migrant big somewhere at the age of 6, which i developed souls on my lips. you know, sometimes when i, when, if i go to school at home, my friends would laugh at me that because paulson bladder didn't come out of my deep. so i received rejection from there and coming from a broken home as well. so i felt i had low self esteem and out my uncle had to keep me as a way of out so much scared of the future because the i was

a point in my life. the doctor told me that i might have been called blind because of the migrant dick, which i did that did affect my eyes. so i sat down and i thought, what's the in the future in doubt? we just the way things where because we struggled so much in the family with mom and dad separated. we went through so much 5 night shandey. so the house, no, any form of hope for me. what about the family, your images surrounding? you understand what you are going through. i know they did not understand. okay, let me just come to mom here. briefly. she is duncan small. mom, if you could just tell us how you feel, after realizing that your child was actually struggling with mental health. and you could not really a pinpoint that that was actually what he was going through permanent, a num, vena in a village, abduct dubray, look to watch butter lemon. an update when you look to my means of fluency by the

normal as an anti song, as he by jeff. good day, the bone in his little meta is of been b. i can into me them must wishing, i mean is, will be dam. nasal. been feed date was episode did data, i'm enough nor was it by and then depend into my phone. is somebody be keesa? did you receive any sort of help during this phase? i never did end there. the sad part isa. i never knew that i was struggling. make toys. i'd, i'd no idea what mental health is. let me just come back to you quickly. benjamin. when we're looking at some of the causes on would societal causes are that are actually result in to some of this mental health issues in zambia. what are some of those that you've encountered? so the most common causes of mental health issues in xander was bill took a bar to increase substance abuse, alcohol and drug abuse in young people. but we also want to emphasize on day aspect of what we call the bio psychosocial. so some individuals out is ready abolished pre disposed where they are born in families where there is a significant history of family members being treated. oh,

andrew did with mentor uranus, this stress as would beverage where to day then. yes. and eventually you normally run episode dutch. now someone would need psychological and you know, either from a college gestapo during intervention. let me just come quickly to a polite or here who of course talks about a lot of social issues. and you are a boy to amazing she and voice of the voice less. how do you e. c, the ease you of mental health in zambia. i think the, the, the conversation around mental health is probably one of the exclusive compositions . you can't find such compositions in poor communities. why do you think it is like that here? ah, i'll tell you. ah, the poor people are of no excuse for whatever happens in the mind. if you doubt school they'll say, you're just dull. if you, if you, if you traumatized, nobody will know that to turns eyes do up. most of these kids lose your parents when they're young, and most of these kids i experienced so much without nobody bring attention to them

. so these composition is, is exclusive to a certain class of people that of an opportunity to even understand we re max is this conversation their own mental health. let me come to you duncan quickly add to just take us through that, that state of mind to really out what was that when you were going through, what was it that you felt that you needed? what were you communicating through your actions, your emotions that people were feeling very difficult to understand and grap? how did that make you feel? um, so i should or the science of so site to my family, the people that i was leaving with. but nobody could be able to recognize my mental state. so i had to withdraw from people i. i lived a lonely life and i was very shy. i had low self esteem was, well, i also could talk much about death and write more so much about die, not be the only solution the only way out. so i showed all those things. sometimes i'll talk to may be spiritual people,

but they told me it's pray about it. so i felt less understood and i felt the only way out is just to end my life. i mean, you talked about the am seeking for spiritual help as well. duncan, let me just come to our doctor francisco here. tell us how is the situation of medical access when it comes to treatment services? mental health is a health presentation like any other health presentation. thus, if an individual feels like they've got any mental health issue or conditions or problem, they should go to the nearest mental health center just like we go to. they help near as health center for a headache. for hypertension, debit is h i v. this is not the casey i you we are in though only by the way the only our mental health hospital is shane mike, this is the only one we have in, in zambia. is that correct? allow me to correct that study name i had so it's the taisha psychiatric hospital. it's the final referral hospital when it comes to mental health. so we can consider

it like the scent of excellence when it comes to psychiatric practice. but is mental health really embedded in your primary health care system? this is what the question is. i think this is something that we're constantly investing in. and i believe this is not something that is unique to zambia. it's actually a global issue. i think for a long time mental health has been sidelined in the practice of medicine. but are you not excused in the, you know, the tuition here because well, i had to move low answer a major area that was thought it is with primary healthcare is awareness. and since deposition, as you have heard from them, a tama from dan can even from badge a man, even polite domains, and we need to reach out to the community. so firstly on our strategy has been improving awareness as his physician or mental health. i'll go back to that, i will come back to what exactly you are doing, moving forward, but for now, which we establish that there is a problem. let's. let's talk about that briefly. at least. introduce yourself. yeah, i'm a bro much in the army. so coaching nice to some other things that we want to talk

or ease. yeah. and we want to improve on. it's not just about talking and coming on t v and making sure. but what we want to sent to the ward there. and what we want to achieve as africa, as xander, is that we want men to her to be if her teeth do we protest. so right now it is not a priority, so much as raised to ya on this oh, see through my born. yes, because i'm another good to for a mental health patient. they would rather sponsor efficient to suffering from casa and not me way, because it's not a priority, but let me just come back to dr. francisco. he, i'll come back to you that he said it is not a priority for this country mental health. i will beg to differ one as i am speaking right now. here. if you compare it maybe to other conditions like h i v t b which are well funded and we have many partners finding that we, it'll look like the ministry is only prioritizing those areas with that is not the

case. we have many international partners on board that are funding those activities. so it'll make an a field of medicine like mental health, which doesn't have many partners look like it's been neglected. ok. and further, on top of that, i know you said we're going to talk about some of the things that we are doing. oh, come back to that later because i am still trying to understand. if it's that it's really been prioritized, and i'm going to come to you duncan here. would you say it has really been prioritized? maybe you've mentioned that having enough badness. that could probably is also sounds like there's not much interest vested in that. if you would want to just come in the more that can be done because i for example, i struggled with depression and anxiety for 12 years. i was a young person in school. i never by then i don't know, but then i never saw anything about mental health on tv. if doctor, you're seeing that it's been given that attention in but then why is it like that? because i feel if i had people that came to my school to talk about mental health

out of different, it's not what i'm struggling with and out of reached out and seek for hill. okay. as an active is they also have a platform, right? do you have a, a blog? is that going on a podcast? how do you center? i'm the communication around mental health because of course the media is very important in that crusade. ok, so on my radio podcast i, i usually include professionals and also people with lived experience. please allow me to am contribute to the question that you had asked of tele, when without a minute is a parity. i don't agree. honestly speaking, we only see the government doing things during these special days like suicide prevention day, and mental health gay. and then even when he go to these hospitals, that the claim help people with them into health. does a lot of stigma, you'll find that i go in there with a mental health problem and the doctor is actually going to 20 me laugh at me. and there's also no protection. the police also, you know,

make fun of people with mental health issues and where do you report that to nobody takes, etc, etc. so definitely slight prayer to latter. would you agree on that? i do agree with no montana and also i don't think that the claim that we need to raise awareness, ease is a lie because there's no need for you to raise awareness when you don't of your facilities. are the hospitals and trained a people to, to work on the, on, on, on, on the problem. what i think is because if you raise awareness, you're raising the demand. so larger is the demand of people to go to the hospitals who is going to treat them. if you don't have foreseen to that, what tends to these people when, where are they going to be? let me come back to your doctor because i think the unanimous agreement or statement here is the fact that the people also who need to attend to people struggling with mental health are not really dead. some have their papers or the degree, but they're not employed in the system. why is that? so indeed, we have a lot of work to do and comes to mental health that i would not deny. we have

a lot of work to do, and it's an upcoming field in medicine and in health globally. globally, i should emphasize that and i think a zombie in the region. i think we're doing pretty well, though allow me to do him. peter was the indicator for that. we have several projects. mental health is a month. those areas of fields in health that we're factoring in. the raise, a very good concern about the health facilities. allow me to educate my panelists as well as the public. let me take advantage of this platform when, when it goes for health practice or medical practice, you know that for every proper medical health practice, you have to rotate through psychiatry to mental health. it's part of our education system, and in some go we've prioritized that to ensure that everyone who graduates in the health sector should have rotated through psychiatry thus be lotto nama tama. when any individual comes to health facility they should get they missile mental health

. all of us medical health personnel have been trained is a catchy and mental health. wanted to order to challenge what the doctor said as of being able to, being trained to diagnose an illness does not mean teaching that unit. okay? yes. so the able to see that able to know that, but do they have the power? ah ah ah ah

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