Essay Example on The youth in Kenya those within the age of 18-30

The youth in Kenya those within the age of 18 30 make up more than 50 percent of the countrys population according to the 2010 censors in Kenya Being the largest of the population there are a number of issues that face them One of the major issues in Kenya today is the unawareness of mental health their stigmatization for those ones who come out and say that they suffer with mental health There has been a rise in mental health cases in the past as Africa and Kenya come to terms with the reality that is mental illness It goes without saying that mental health is in issue that needs to be addressed properly In February of 2011 No health without mental health was launched in the United Kingdom to push governments to acknowledge the stigmatization and low standard of this health care service The campaign is trying to get the governments to give priority to the heath care systems History of Mental Illness in Kenya Mental health in Kenya is treated akin to traditional medicine With the services given too an inpatient mentally ill person in a public institution would be of lower standard in terms of facilities than that of in a private institution Doctors and professionals in this sector just like in the main stream medicine would go to attend to public patients in the morning then attend to their private patients in the afternoon where they charge more money and give better services In the recent past there has been an increment of suicide cases among young people 

The government has left this mantle to the non governmental organizations NGOs Mathari Hospital in Nairobi on World suicide prevention day in 2017 launched a program to try and prevent suicide in the youth in Kenya The program take a moment save a life is calling upon the community to take up the mantel and identify those with suicidal thoughts and directing them to the relevant professionals It also brought to the awareness of the public that they need to take time and truly listen to people as we are becoming less communal and more individual it is easy for people to become superficial and not truly listen or talk about what is going on in their lives The campaign also sought to talk about the need to speak out and talk about the things that would cause someone distress Catherine Syengo a Psychiatrist at Mathari Hospital said at the event the depression is preventable if the whole community is involved in ensuring and taking care of mental health just like people would take care of themselves physically There have been many campaigns from many organizations trying to ensure that the word is spread on the awareness of mental health issues to ensure that it is caught before it becomes worse With the media writing more about it in the papers as a part of lifestyle pieces and giving it more airtime on television to get the country taking about the issue It goes without saying however that more can be done to ensure that the problem is curbed and that more people take care of their loved ones