BY ELLY MWANDIKI

"If a naked man promises you a piece of cloth, ask him his name" Sudanese proverb

One in four people develop a mental or behavioral disorder in some stage in life. Every year 1 million people commit suicide with, 10 to 20 million attempted suicide globally. Besides common obvious mental health illness like autism,aspergers, Bipolar disorders and epilepsy there are other mostly ignored disorders.

Meru county in partnership with AMREF , embarked on 3 day training of community health strategist who will in turn train community health workers and MYS who will work on health extension on mental health cases identification and referrals of the same.

DR Muthoni Gichu of Ministry, trained Meru county health strategists for AMREF-Kenya said that the training is meant to demystify myths and stigma associated with mental health. According to her most of the mental cases especially genetic are wrongly associated with witchcraft and occultism. Most of these mental illness cases don’t know they are actually ill.

Occupational mental health disorders

Alcohol use addiction is a major mental health disorder in which is common especially in workplace. To identify person with alcohol use disorder is heavy alcohol intake and reduced social, occupational and recreational interaction in expense of alcohol intake. Counseling and drug rehabilitation is the best way to treat this disorder.

Another common mental disorder in workplace is behavioral disorder , this may involve attention Deficit disorder, opposition defiant disorders and conduct disorders. Attention deficient individual may tend to work only in presence of seniors usually to be recognized by seniors. These individuals tend to embark on tasks they cannot accomplish in order to be recognized. An opposition defiant individual is hostile to authority and opposes anything without a logical basis.

Lacking Emotional intelligence is also a common mental illness in workplace these individuals tend to overreact to situations. Emotional disorder may involve laughing uncontrollably, excessive anger, harassment of subordinates and inability to maintain cordial relationship with colleagues.

Post-traumatic stress disorder affects individuals who have been through a traumatic situation like firefighters, doctors and nurses.counselling is important for these individuals. Depression ia another common mental disorder and is extended period of sadness due to a bad experience ,this patient is anxious, tearful and restless.

Most of mental disorders are interrelated and seeking professional advice and referrals is the best way to remedy the illnesses.