Linking 2 Learn: Mental Health Advocacy

In a previous webinar, we learnt about the importance of advocating for mental health in our communities and the impact that it can have. The session was led by JEET BAHADUR who leads the Burans team in India, and WINNIE OKOTH who is an Advocacy Officer with TINADA Youth Action Africa in Kenya. You can watch the video or read some highlights below:

Highlights:

You can't do it alone

Mental health advocacy involves building relationships with the government, Faith Based organisations, policy makers and other like minded institutions. One of the main relationships should be with your local government who are in charge of delivering essential services.

To cultivate this relationship, you could share your mission and vision with them, and support their efforts at the community level. Another way is to invite them to Mental Health events that you are organising. Such gatherings ensure that people have the opportunity to share their challenges and gaps, and the government has the opportunity to listen. To build trust with the government, send regular updates and also be available when they need your help.

It is also important to involve the media. The media has the ability to create awareness of mental health issues on a larger scale through local radio and newspapers. This can help like minded organisations and policy makers become aware of what you are doing and provide you with the support you need.

“Unless we raise our voice, the government is not going to provide us with their services or anything that we really require.”

Have a system

It is important to create a database to store information of community members. This can help you keep track of how many people need assistance, what kind of help they need and any challenges or gaps that are there. You can then share this information with like minded partners such as the government. Ensure you follow data protection laws in your country and keep confidential data private.

It is also important to outline steps to advocacy that your community can use. This should involve; identifying the problem, the policy/program in place and how your program or community will solve the problem. You can use this simple 5 step template by Burans to help you start.

The community should take ownership

It is important for the community to take ownership of advocacy efforts to build long term sustainability and not rely too much on others. If you or your group is involved in advocacy, ensure that you encourage members of the community to be a part of it from the beginning. You can do this by  inviting them to be part of mental health dialogues with experts and building their capacity and skills through hands-on training and mentorship. This way, they will feel a sense of belonging and reduce stigma. They will also know their rights, how to communicate them, what services are available to them and so much more. This will enable them to continue with advocacy efforts long after your program is gone. 

It’s not always easy

Advocacy can be a hard process with many challenges such as over-reliance, fear, lack of awareness, lack of funding or enough personnel or government leadership transitions. You may not see immediate results but keep in mind that little progress counts. Eventually, conversations will turn into proposals and proposals will turn to partnerships and then to action.

There is hope

In India, when the Burans begun their advocacy efforts, there were no psychiatric doctors, facilities or medicines available in the region. They identified those who needed help, made a list and shared the gaps and challenges with the hospital and government. They took notice of these things and deployed one psychiatric doctor at the Community Health Centre and also invited the Burans to be part of the State Mental Health Authority which is responsible for making policies and monitoring mental health in the region. Because of this, the Burans have participated in drafting policies and ensuring that all medicine centres should have psychologists and psychiatrists.

A few years ago, there were only two hospitals offering mental health services in Kisumu, Kenya. Now, through TINADA’s efforts and collaboration with Civil Society Organisations and the county government, there are 7 additional mental health structures in place together with mental health coordinators and psychiatric nurses. TINADA has also been a part of the development of 3 key mental health policies in their region. 

Learn how you can collaborate with like minded health and development workers here