The Ministry of Health is planning to start using Village Health Teams (VHTs) to help address the high number of people battling mental illness.
According to Dr. Hafisa Lukwata, the Acting Assistant Commissioner in charge of Mental Health and Control of Substance Abuse in the Ministry, they have embarked on training key individuals in the community to offer simple solutions like identifying distressed people and talking to them.
Lukwata who was speaking at the launch of a five-year strategic plan for mental health by the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation yesterday said while the number of people living with a form of mental illness was put at 14 million Ugandans recently, the number is bigger than that with the highest number being of people battling anxiety disorders.END.