By Umaru Fofana
For the first time in Sierra Leone a child and adolescent mental health facility has been opened.
Situated at the Kissy Psychiatric Hospital, the first in sub-Saharan Africa opened in 1820, the facility was established through funds raised by Ariana Oluwale who runs an early childhood center in Freetown.
On her birthday in February, Mrs Oluwale decided to embark on a crowdfunding drive to make real her dream of a go-to place for children with mental health issues which range from autism, epilepsy and depression, to child anxiety disorder and even drug use disorder among adolescents.
She had observed that the ongoing Covid19 pandemic was severely impacting especially children whose life, livelihood and lifestyle had been disrupted or even turned upside down.
“Because we were all indoors for most of the time you had a lot of children who did not have access to fancy services, or television or technology. So they were constantly bored…basically no playmates,” she told Politico.
She went on to say that “even for those children that live in the villages it’s quite isolated now because you have very meager resources that everyone is sharing…So rather than having communal eating, communal playing, you have children who are by themselves for very long hours”.
This motivated her to reach out to friends who encouraged her to give her dream a try. Individual Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad joined her birthday project and raised some money.
The US medical charity, Partners in Health, and VISTA Bank crowned her efforts to redo a derelict building at the Kissy Psychiatric Hospital and bring it up to a proper learning and counselling place for children and adolescents with mental health issues.
One of those who joined her is Dr Elizabeth Allieu who is in charge of the new unit. She told Politico that child and adolescent mental health was a serious issue in the country and was getting worse.
Dr Allieu said the unit would tend to patients as young as two years old and up to 18 years.
She said there were no statistics on the number of children affected by mental health in the country but that they were receiving cases on a daily basis with a treatment gap of more 99.7% – essentially no treatment at all.
She urged parents to bring forward their children because they stood a “better and improved state of life” if intervention was made earlier.
She attributed mental health of children to maternal depression and substance and alcohol abuse by mothers.
Health Minister, Dr Austin Demby commissioned the new facility. He urged all other Sierra Leoneans to emulate the example of Ariana Oluwale to complement government’s efforts as best as they could in the best interest of Sierra Leone.
“It is fascinating, it is really incredible”, he said of the new facility, saying it’s a safe environment for learning.
“Any child in this environment will not feel like they are losing or missing out on anything outside” he went on.
The state is providing the staff, and the minister said there was the need for similar units in the regional headquarter towns and for more facilities like tablet computers and fun games to be provided so the children would not feel bored.
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