Subukia embraces fight against mental health

More than 80 community health volunteers from Subukia sub-county in Nakuru County benefited from a gender-based-violence mental health training aimed at reducing the problem in the area.

The community health volunteers (CHVs) represented at least 300 other members from 27 units in the expansive three wards of Subukia constituency.

According to Kabazi Ward Representative Peter Mbae, the training will help CHVs reach out to individuals in their respective units and identify such cases.

Speaking during the workshop on mental health organised by Midrift Hurinet, a non-profit organisation, he said that such cases are on the rise but are never talked about in rural areas.

He regretted that such cases are usually triggered by the escalating mental health problems that sometimes escalate to suicide, murder and sexual violence on women and young children.

Health volunteers

“We are marking 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence in the country. We decided to train the community health volunteers on the impact of GBV and mental health since they are in a better position to reach people at the grassroots and teach them the same,” said Dr Mbae.

“The issue of gender-based violence and suicide cases due to mental health issues is a big problem. We have so many cases of married people turning against their spouses and young people killing themselves. We want to prevent them.”

Dr Mbae said that though suicides, murders and defilements happen in the area, little is being done to curb them and hence the move is aimed at impacting people at the grassroots.

Each community health volunteer, he said, has been allocated at least seven homes within their units and the training will help them identify and, through interaction with the community, intervene before the situation gets out of hand.

“We have at least 300 CHVs across the sub-county but we just choose a few to train them on capacity building. They are in the position of reaching many residents in their villages. We know that the knowledge they have (received) will be of great help to their communities,” he said.

Counselling

“They are being taught on counselling, mental health, gender-based violence to help them identify people who have such issues before they escalate to murders and also learn how to handle the issues and bring them out.”

Ms Dorcas Ndegwa, the Subukia sub-county team leader, said that mental health is a silent killer in Kenya and it needs to be addressed.

She said that though the sub-county’s population is high, they targeted CHVs to help in enlightening people as they are ambassadors of health in the community.

By empowering them on mental health and the impact of gender-based violence, she said, they were confident the information will reach the grassroots.

“When we want the information to get to the community we do it through CHVs. The sub-county has a large population and we can’t reach them individually but through the members we have trained today we are hopeful it will help,” said Ms Ndegwa

Mr Boniface Mwangi, a community health volunteer from Subukia East, echoed the optimism, saying that the capacity building will help in educating their respective communities.

“We are happy that our MCA thought of training us. The training will really help us. We have been tasked with ensuring that we teach people the importance of peace in their families," Mr Mwangi said.

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