the thoughts when we say they're about never getting up every weekend on dw, the 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 zombie a past a mental health little in 2910. but it's implementation is still touchy. in this week's treat debate, the 77 percent heads to the soccer to find out why, despite the little people who have mental health problems, can't get the help they need. take a look. the

depression, bipolar disorder, mental health issues like these are seen as the boot topics in many african societies with limited access to medical health care services, young africans to struggling with their mental health, i left to their own devices. the dw 77 percent is, is that'd be precisely the 2nd to look at this silent epidemic circle. satellite repeat, i me, 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, talking about mental health 1st before just gave us an overview of the mental health situation here in zambia. we have most of us say this is highly centralized and the 2nd on the services um uh we have a government institutions and private practice coming up. and we have a number of institutions that are also providing uh like telephone counseling

services. just to make sure that the access to mental health services is made available, accessible and affordable, even to those why not within the 2nd? all right, let me just come to uh, number tom out here. benjamin has been in the advocacy for over 10 years who started just 2 years ago. tell us what has been your focus, is it that for the past beckett, a lot of work has not been done in this, but maybe you want to start to own a delicacy as well. so my focus has been on raising mental health and wellness 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 as such as the belief that mental illness is a curse or, you know, it's the one position. so my focus has been to the bunk those myths and make people realize that mental illness is something that can tuck anyone. and we have duncan here who yourself has experienced this lives. talk to us about the experience with

mental health. how was that phase of your life? like i struggled with depression and anxiety for over 12 years. in that moment i became suicide, but the age of 10. and at the age of 16, i studied attempting suicide. i did my democratic somewhere at the age of 6, which i develop souls and my leaps. you know, sometimes when i, when, if i go to school at home, my friends would love for me that because policy and by doing come out of my lips. 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 on. so i had to kept me as a way old file was 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 that migrated dick, which i started to fix my eyes, so i sat down and i, i thought, what's the in the future?

and we just did with things where because we struggled so much during the fun meeting with mom and dad separated. we went through so much by 9 chevy. so the, i was no, any form of hope for me. what about the family, your images surrounding? you understand what you're going through? i know they did not understand. okay, let me just come to mom here. briefly. she is duncan small, a mom. if you could just tell us how you feel, after realizing that your child was actually struggling with mental health and you cannot really pin point that that was actually what he was going through for a minute. and none of the names that you had left up with up to which but let me know and update the good news of my maintenance or frequency by the number was and i've done some guys the by difficult day. the funding is to me to use the same feed i need to meet. i'm must wishing, i mean is, will be time. these will be indeed beach was up as a, with the data by minutes and it was it by and then deeper into my phone is i'm

reading the case. did you receive any sort of help during this phase? i mean, if i did, and they decide part is, uh, if i knew if i knew that i was struggling to make toys, i had no idea what to mean to help with these. let me just come back to you quickly, bench. i mean, when we are looking at some of the causes some suicidal causes that are actually result into some of the, some mental health issues with them being what are some of those that you've encountered. so the most common causes of mental health issues and possibly talk about that increased substance abuse, alcohol and drug abuse in young people. but we also want to emphasize on the aspect of what we call the bio psychosocial. so, so many individuals that is already brothers corporate dispos, why they are born in families where there is a significant yourselves, family members being treated or under the investment that you're in, this district size would perpetuate the, the yes and eventually, you know, later on episode that's now someone would need psychological and you know,

i have the chemical that you could stop by during integration. let me just come quickly to apply to here, who of course talks about a lot of social issues. you are port m e z c, n, voice of the voice less. how do you each see the issue of mental health in zambia? i think the, the, the conversation around mental health is from the, one of the exclusive conversations. you can find such conversations in poor communities. why do you think it's, it's like that to you? i'll tell you. the poor people have no excuse for whatever happens. you might, if you're down at school, you'll say, if you're just out, if you, if you, if you tell me what size, nobody would know that you're the one size. do you have most of these kids lose your parents when they're young, and most of these kids experience so much without nobody paying attention to them? so these composition is exclusive to us in class of people that have an opportunity to even understand leaving next se, se, combination, their own mental. you let me come to duncan quickly add to just take us through

that, that state of mind to really what was it when you were going through? what was it that you felt that you need, that way you're communicating through your actions, your emotions that people were feeling very difficult to understand and grew up? how did that make you feel? so i showed all of the science of suicide to my family. the people that i was leaving always, but nobody could be able to recognize my mental state. so i had to withdraw from people i. i lived in the life and i was very shy. i had low self esteem as well. i also could talk much about, they seemed right most so much about die, you know, be the only solution the only way out. so i showed all those things. sometimes i took to maybe spiritual people, but they told me, let's pray about it. so i felt least understood and i felt the only way out to just in my life, i mean, you talked about um, seeking for spiritual help as well. don't let me just come to dr. 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 a mental health issue, a condition, a problem, they should go to the nearest mental health center dislike. we go to the nearest health center for a headache. for hypoth taishan, that bit is h i v. this is not the case. yeah. you well in the only by the way, the early mental health hospital with this china i this is the only one we have in insomnia. is that correct? allow me to correct. that's the go ahead. so it's the 2, sorry. psychiatric hospital is the final referral hospital when it comes to mental health. so we think was the very like the center of excellence when it comes to psychiatric practice. what is mental health really embedded in your primary health care system? this is what the question is. i think this was something that will cause them to be

investing in, and i believe this is not something that is unique because i'm guys actually a global issue. i think for a long time, mental health has been sidelined in the practice of medicine. but i, you know, excuse in the, you know, the duration. yeah. because we're trying to move to answer a major area that was thought that is with primary health care is awareness, since it stays a soon as you have heard from them a tom a from down can even from page i mean even pull out domains and we need to reach out to the community. so 1st we all know strategy has been improving awareness. state vision are mental health. oh, going back to that, i will come back to what exactly you are doing moving forward, but for now we've established that that is a problem is i spoke about that briefly. i don't lose introduce yourself. yeah, i remember how much, you know, i mean, is that got you nice to some of the things that we want to tackle is. 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 extend to that would be and what we want

to achieve as africa, as that idea is that we want mental health to be if i take the 5 days, so right now it is not a priority so much or should i? yeah, and this i will say through my born years, because i'm and that's good for a mental health patient. they will drive the sponsor efficient to suffering from casa and not me. why? because he's still active 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 big to defy one as i am speaking right now. yeah. if you compare it maybe to other conditions like h, i v t b, we to well funded and we have many partners finding that we it looked like the ministry is only prioritizing those areas with that's not the case. we have many international partners on board that are funding those activities. so it will make an a field of medicine like mental health, which doesn't have many partners look like it's been neglected. okay. and further,

on top of that, i know you said we're going to talk about some of the things that we'll come back to that later because i am still trying to understand if it's that it's really been prioritize. and i'm going to come to you duncan here, would you say it has really been prioritized. you've mentioned that having enough partners that could provide has also sounded like there's not much interest invested in that. if you would want to just come in for me. my comment on that is that i feel this more that can be done because for example, i struggled with depression and then factory for 12 years. i was a young pacing in school. i knew by the i don't know, but then i never saw anything about mental health on t v. the day you're seeing that it's been given that attention and 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 knowing what i'm struggling with and out reached out and seek

for help. ok. as an active is the also have a platform, right? do you have a blog, is that going to put test? how do you send the communication to run mental health? because of course the media is very important in that course said. okay, so on my radio podcast i, i usually include professionals and also people always lived experience. please allow me to contribute to the question that you had as to why. yeah, when with the middle of the is a period, i don't agree. but honestly speaking, we only see the government doing things during these special days like suicide prevention day and mental health day. and then even when we go to these hospitals, that the claim help people with their mental health, there's a little stigma you'll find that i'm going there with a mental problem. and the doctor is actually going to talk to me and laugh at me. and there's a single protection the police also, you know, make fun of people with mental health issues. and would you report that to nobody takes that seriously. so definitely start a prayer for a lot to would you agree on that?

i do agree with no mama, i know. so that's, i think that the claim that we need to raise awareness is, is a lie because there's no need for you to raise awareness when you're doing tabular facilities, the or speech goals that change uh, people to, to work on the, on and on, on the program, what i think is because if you raise awareness, you're raising the demand. so now you raise the demand of people to go to the hospital. it's always going to treat them. if you don't have facilities that what tends to these people then where are they going to be? let me come back to your doctor because uh, i think the united most agreement or statement to yeah is the fact that the people also, we need to attend to people struggling with mental health and really death. some have the 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 when it comes to mental health that they would not deny. we have a lot of work to do and it's an upcoming field in medicine and in health below valley

. go buddy, i should emphasize that. and i think as i'm getting the we did, i think we're doing pretty well, though allow me to do and predict what's the indicator for that. we have several projects, mental health is a month. those areas are fields in health that we're factoring in. the raise, a very good concern about the health facilities allow me to educate. my problem is, as well as the public, let me take advantage of this platform. when, when we go for health practice or medical practice, you know, that's for every pro 5 medical health practice, you have to rotate through psychiatry to mental health is part of our dictation system. and this is something that we've prioritized it to ensure that everyone who graduates in the health sector should have very tight that's through psychiatry, does belong to a button. i'm a tom, a what any individual comes to health facility they should get. they mutual mental health, all of us medical health personnel have been trained is

a country and mental health wanted to order to change what the doctor said. so being able to, uh, being strange to diagnose an illness does not mean shooting that unit. okay? yes. so the able to see that they but you know that, but do they have the power, the necessary tools and is that you meant to treat because you're facing that trains to diagnose it? then what's the point? i mean, how many, how many people do we have in the areas that have been treated for mental health problems? i think that is what i wanted to raise again. here is the people i that they can diagnose. but if the facility is not giving the right treatment, then what's the point? this comes back to us. the on us is on, on every mit health 1st personnel to pick up the mentor and prioritize mental health. and this is what we keep encouraging for mental health. what is key is a good history taking. remember, it's psychological, it's information, it's social. this is what we aim to train. are you really dealing with the, with, with the psycho social.