Mental Health in Somalia

I read this article a couple of months back and thought that it really highlighted what we have been talking about in class.  Somalia has been fighting the Somali Civil War since 1991.  The US largely has stayed out of Somalia since the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, known to many of us as, “Black Hawk Down.”  However, the attacks of 2001 brought new interest in Somalia, as the US was afraid that the country had become a terrorist breeding ground.  Somalia today does have a sub group of Al-Qaeda known as Al-Shabaab.  There is an estimated 10 million people living in Somalia today with 3 million living in the capital city, Mogadishu.  The articles focus on the mental health of the citizens in Somalia, particularly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and addiction.  The Habeb Public Mental Hospital is the only mental health facility in Somalia, getting much of its funding from local businessmen. Since the hospital opened six years ago, it has treated more than 13,000 mentally ill patients and its rooms are overflowing.  Patients can admit themselves or be brought in by their families, though it is commonly believed that mental illnesses are created by a jinn (genie) and thus patients are taken to local healers.  Also when the fighting gets very bad and families flee, they might not have the capacity to take their mentally ill members with them so the hospital finds patients roaming the streets.

            According to Abdi Rahman Habeeb, one of the hospital’s staff members, “No one in Mogadishu is in a stable mental state due to the constant shelling and displacement. How can someone be psychologically healthy when they're going to bed with the sound of mortars ringing in their ears and waking up to the sound of bullets?”  The patients are almost equally men and women, and from all walks of life.  While researching for this post, I found another article outlining the high addiction rates of Somali refugees living either in camps or abroad.  Many of them suffer not only from PTSD, but also from addiction to khat. Khat (or qat) is a mild stimulant drug with effects similar to amphetamines that is grown in Somalia, and Habeb says there is a link between khat and mental psychosis.  In class this past week, I kept thinking about this article because of what we discussed, and I think that in terms of conflict, the groups become so “villanized” that we forget about the actual citizens. News about Somalia is filled with pirates and crazed members of Al-Qaeda who are going to blow up innocent Americans, but the citizens who have to live in terror every single day are lost in the shuffle. 

Recently, there has been a push for ending the war and increasing democracy. Just this month, Kismayo, the last major city held by Al-Shabab and the country's second-largest port, fell to African Union and government forces, along with a town 90 miles from Mogadishu. There is a parliament, President, and Prime Minister who are dedicated to fighting corruption, nepotism and ending the war.  However, there is just one mental health facility and a strong stigma to combat. “A short drive from Habeb hospital is the country's biggest health centre, Benadir hospital, where they only treat normal people, not “mad” people. The current state of mental affairs means that even if the war ends, the new government might not have the infrastructure to deal with the after-effects of the war. 

Sources: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/apr/05/fighting-mental-health-somalia
http://www.who.int/hac/crises/som/somalia_mental_health/en/index.html
http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/africa/mental-health-war-torn-somalia