Innovation summary

In Kenya, with a high prevalence of mental disorders among its 42 million citizens, there are only about 94 practicing psychiatrists. This shortage of professionals, combined with limited drug supplies, government funding and stigma, leaves most of those living with mental illness unable to access much needed diagnosis and treatment.

The Africa Mental Health Foundation (AMHF) approach breaks down barriers between the formal and informal sectors, encouraging dialogue and training to increase synergy and communication. This scale-up project will enable the AMHF to build its referral networks and expand its integration of mental health into existing public and community health services by training formal (nurses, clinical officers) and informal (traditional healers, faith healers) healthcare providers. Project goals also include building awareness and combating the stigma of mental illness within rural communities and, long-term, a community mental health care model that can be scaled up and implemented throughout Kenya.

Impact summary

The project will:

  • Scale-up services from 2 to 20 facilities in Makueni County, located between Nairobi and Mombasa
  • Engage and educate more than 160 community health workers, traditional and faith healers, and identify 6,000 suspected cases of mental illness
  • If the same rate of success prevails as in the pilot program, almost 2,000 people will be diagnosed within the year

Innovation details

Viability of the model was demonstrated in a proof of concept project, funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, during which the referrals of people suspected of having mental illness rose from nil to 1,593, of which almost one-third (494, or 31%) were clinically diagnosed with a mental health disorder by trained healthcare staff. 

A major new investment will enable the Africa Mental Health Foundation (AMHF) to build its referral networks and expand its integration of mental health into existing public and community health services by training formal (nurses, clinical officers) and informal (traditional healers, faith healers) healthcare providers.

Key drivers

  • Continuous engagement dialogue with multiple stakeholders
  • Government buy-in and support
  • Monitoring and evaluation strategies
  • Supervision
  • Converting challenges into opportunities

Challenges

One of the main challenges was stigma and this was both self and community discrimination experienced. Staff transfers was also a key challenge as most of the trained staff were transferred away before implementing the model. Other competing priorities by health ministry staff and professional protectionism by health staff produced challenges throughout the project.

Continuation

The county government has already made use of this innovation through scale up efforts in other health facilities within the County and we are awaiting grant applications for a scale up at present.

Partners

Funders:

Partners:

Evaluation methods

We engaged a monitoring and evaluation specialist who worked very closely with project staff. A monitoring and evaluation plan was developed with developed tools embedded into the organisational structures and operation systems to ensure data is collected cleaned and analysed for reporting and publication. 

Cost of implementation

Matching funding from the Government of Makueni County was $491,700 USD ($660,000 CDN).

Impact details

The new funding will help AMHF scale up from two to 20 facilities in Makueni County, located between Nairobi and Mombasa. It will engage and educate more than 160 community health workers, traditional and faith healers and anticipates identifying 6,000 more suspected cases of mental illness. If the same rate of success prevails as in the pilot program, almost 2,000 people will be diagnosed within the year.

 

Reports

Associates

Victoria Mutiso PI
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Country

Kenya

Affiliated organizations

Africa Mental Health Foundation

Gallery

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