Development of holistic mental health care in Uganda

Despite the fact that Uganda has an enabling national mental health policy framework, there are clear gaps in the mental health service delivery. This is not surprising as less than one percent of the health budget is spent on mental health. Mental health services are poorly resourced and treatment rates remain low with less than 10 percent of the patients receiving treatment. People with mental health problems have an almost 30 years reduced life expectancy compared with the general population in Sub-Sahara Africa, which is the highest premature mortality gap between healthy and mentally ill people in the world. The current treatment is mainly based on expensive and unfordable pharmacotherapy. The aim of this project is to: (1) develop and evaluate a holistic mental health care training for the existing work staff, with a specific focus on healthcare professionals in the 14 Regional Referral Hospitals across Uganda, and (2) provide policy advice to the Ministry of Health on holistic mental health care for the Mental Health Action plan 2021-2028.