The Commissioner of Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, has urged Members of Parliament (MPs) not to join other stakeholders in lamenting about the limited access to mental health services in Uganda but rather ensure that the services are mainstreamed in both public and private sector activities.
Mpuuga made the remarks during the official opening of a one-week-long mental health camp at Parliament.
During the function, Mpuuga commended the government for its efforts at ensuring there are no drug stockouts for HIV/AIDS patients and called for the same efforts to be extended towards mental health services.
“We can thank the government for ensuring that HIV/AIDS medications never run out. I’ve been doing a lot of oversight work at health clinics; everywhere you go, levels I, II, and IV, they have the stocks. So, why are medications for mental health patients running out? We haven’t mainstreamed it. I think that’s a problem for us as important players to respond to, and by doing that, we would have solved the issue of drug stockouts,” Mpuuga noted.
Mpuuga stated that the country is in denial about the scope and gravity of the mental health crisis, adding that it’s because the doctor’s severity varies from person to person and community to community. He, however, said that one of the biggest challenges that curbed HIV/AIDS was mainstreaming it in all sectors and in all activities, adding that there is a substantial reduction in the transmission of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.
Dr. Brian Byamah Mutamba, the Deputy Director of Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital, called for the mainstreaming of mental health care and treatment in all budgets of public institutions in order to bring services closer to the communities.
“We need a lot of support to improve mental health, not only as a hospital where we are already oversubscribed, but also to use our mandate to improve services in primary health care at the community level,” Mutamba stated.
He urged that the limited access to mental health services in Uganda has exerted pressure on Butabika Hospital, yet some of the cases can be handled at the lower health facilities.