BY METHEMBE SIBANDA A local non-governmental organisation (NGO) yesterday launched a programme aimed at promoting access to mental health care services to frontline workers and gender based violence (GBV) victims.
Speaking during a meeting on mental health care, SAT youth officer Vimbai Nyika said her organisation recorded a surge in mental health cases in the country since the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Under the new programme, we are going to implement a programme aimed at promoting access to mental health services as well as psycho support for frontline health care workers as well as violence survivors,” Nyika said.
“The purpose of this is to ensure that they have access to mental health services that will place them in a better position to improve the quality of care that they offer to patients. If one is at peace, one is in a good mental state to cure the communities well. “
Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo said poor access to mental health care by health professionals was one of the leading causes for the brain drain.
“We have a lot of workers who died during COVID-19. Also the government did not do well during the period of the pandemic to pay frontline workers,” Dongo said.
“This brought about a lot of physiological problems. We have lost a lot of senior nurses going outside the country due to the circumstances of salaries and access to mental health care services.”
