HIV/AIDS and Mental Health in Kenya: The Challenges and Opportunities
- Author:
David Musyimi Ndetei
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
HIV/AIDS;
mental health;
challenges;
Kenya
- From:Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine
2012;12(Supplement 1):4-4
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationships between mental illness and HIV/AIDS on Global Scale and then focuses on the Kenyan situation, examining Kenyan Data from 2 different perspectives – urban and rural with special emphasis on IDUs.
There is now substantial global data and evidence to support the burden posed by the cause-effect relationship between Mental Health disorders and HIV/AIDS and the attendant burden. This is a problem significantly more important in developing countries than in developed countries because of insufficient resources – both financial and human. However, there is hope that if we utilized and maximized on the resources already at our disposal, it is possible to find sustainable solutions to overcome the challenges and barriers and significantly reduce the burden.
The emerging data from a PEPFAR support HIV/AIDS surveillance in a rural setting in Kenya clearly suggests that people with HIV/AIDS are not only living much longer but are also striving to achieve normal lives including routine activities of daily living. All this is thanks to the increased availability of ARVs and the much reduced stigma against HIV/AIDS. Despite the wide availability of ARVs and reduced Stigma, the ability to function normally and achieve full compliance with the ARVs is severally compromised by brain diseases that are secondary to the viral involvement of the brain or as a result of life stressors, presenting as cognitive dysfunctions that seem to have an independent course despite the ARV treatment but also co-morbid depressive illness whether casual or causal. Depressed people may have a pessimistic view of themselves, thus compromising ARV compliance or may compromise the immunological progression as a result of the HIV/AIDS, independent of the ARVs.
This calls for integration of the HIV/AIDS and mental health management in diagnosis, and treatment. This poses a challenge to understaffed clinics and overworked staffs with no mental health skills and even if they had the skills, they do not have the time needed for adequate psychiatric interviews and MSE for the diagnoses and management of mental disorders. However, this can be overcome by devising easy to administer screening and diagnostic instrument such as the GMHAT with suggested management. This approach not only facilitates dual diagnosis and management, but will help to integrate the information systems on those two conditions.
