Concerned about increasing cases of mental illness, Parliament on Tuesday passed a motion urging government to increase funding for mental health.

The motion was moved by Butambala woman Member of Parliament Aisha Kabanda who cited recent reports putting the number of Ugandans with mental problems at 14 million.

The motion calls for prioritization and improvement of mental health and psychiatric care in Uganda including the need to increase the number mental health and psychiatric medical professionals in the hospitals.

Kabanda said the current number of only 42 mental health doctors in the country is way too low to handle a population of over 40 million people. 

 The vocal National Unity Platform (NUP) legislator said the social-economic consequences of COVID-19 have increased cases of mental illness in the country. 

 “We are worried that cases will increase. The budget in the Ministry of Health alone is not enough. Mental health services should be mainstreamed into all sectors,” she suggested.

Pian County MP Remigio Achia proposed an amendment to Kabanda’s motion to include a requirement for the Ministry of Health to prepare a detailed statement on the state of mental health in the country including the statistics, the infrastructure, the human resource and the funding gaps, which he said, would guide Parliament on the necessary interventions. The house unanimously adopted his proposal. 

Kapir County MP Dr Abraham Ismat said, “There should be a lot of investment, especially in human capital development especially mental health medical workers. Even here, there could be mental cases. I am an animal psychologist. You can look at someone’s behaviour and tell this one is a potential candidate.”

Iki-Iki County MP Robert Kasolo said, “Mental illness is a reality. It is increasing. There are young men in our villages who have gone to waste. Mental case issues are increasing. Handling a mental case person is very expensive.”

Ayivu County MP John Lematia said, “We are all victims of mental illness. It is the degree that varies. We need to do a lot of awareness about mental health.”

Busia Municipality MP Geoffrey Macho called for the upgrade of the Mental Health Unit in Mulago National Referral Hospital to a department, arguing that this would improve treatment and care of mental health patients.  

Noting that the medicines are very expensive and inaccessible, Macho also called for free distribution of drugs to the mentally ill. 

Soroti East MP Herbert Ariko proposed the need to equip health institutions to train mental health specialists. 

“Currently, we only have two qualified examiners of psychiatric specialists and they have retired. Mental health trainers are not available. We need to equip institutions to train people,” he suggested. 

Urging legislators and other stakeholders to prioritise the need to address mental illness in the country, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa said, “the day you have a mental health patient, that is when you will realise how serious the problem.”

The Deputy Speaker argued that the detailed statement that would come from the Ministry of Health on state of mental health in the country to guide Parliament in the budgeting process for the next financial year.