Mental health and the Somali understanding

[Shamas]

Hello everyone

I came across an article on Mental health and the Somali community in this website adunnyo.com.
Please read it and share your thoughts on awareness of Mental health issues in our community. I have come across the two factors of either ignoring the problem, sending the individual back to Somalia and claiming its a jin possessions. The last one angres me, in society where information and science is at our finger tips, people can still use the unknown as an excuse. Alot of the time, especially back home there are 'camps' where people take mentally ill relatives and they get treatment, something I can only describe as 'abuse' and 'torture'. I've heard stories of authistic children and women with post-natal depression disregarded as experiencing a 'jini possession' or 'black magic'. Any ideas why this answer is easier to understand than they are mentally suffering?

Mental health is an area within the Somali community that is still a bit taboo I feel. People do not really talk about it too much apart from telling you that so and so went a bit crazy. I do not know whether people feel ashamed of relatives who have a mental illness or whether they are just lacking the knowledge of the support that is out there for people with mental health problems.

When I went to Somalia on holiday for the first time 8 years ago I noticed a lot of people, in particular men, who were roaming the streets and were described by others as crazy. I asked people why this was the case and I was told that a lot of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the war that has gone untreated. But someone also said to me “you westerners send your crazy people back here and expect us to deal with them”. I found this a very interesting comment as I have found it to be true. Even within my own family I have an uncle that was sent back to Somalia after he became a schizophenic which was brought on by his excessive chewing of khat.

“Khat can make pre-existing mental health problems worse and can cause paranoid and psychotic reactions (which may be associated with irritability, anxiety and losing touch with reality).” – Talk to Frank

So I started wondering what makes Somali men in particular so much more prone to mental health problems. Do they have a low tolerance level for khat? Or is it post traumatic stress that has been made worse by the use of khat?

“Black men born in Britain are between 2.4 and 18 times more likely to be given a diagnosis of schizophrenia than the general population.” – Counselling Directory

All the while thinking about these issues regarding Somali men I read about 3 different cases in the news, within the last 4 months, of Somali women who have killed their own children and were sections under the Mental Health Act as they were suffering from severe mental health problems which were not treated and eventually lead to them killing their own children. This lead me to think that mental health cases in Somali women are also on the rise but what is causing this? And why are we not willing to talk about these issues so that we can address them and treat the people who are suffering instead of sending them away or staying silent till it excalates.

By H. Mohamed

http://aduunyo.com/2010/12/mental-healt ... community/

[ciyaal_warta]

i have a friend who worked in soomaaliya as Dr in one of soomaali hospital and she told me somalis back home are either 50% mentally ill or going to be soon ..itsd a sad case

[HELWAA]

Wa amar alle, wadankiina wax la'aanta aya dadka sii waaleysa.Ilaahy ha oo sahlo maskaakinta.

[Shamas]

i have a friend who worked in soomaaliya as Dr in one of soomaali hospital and she told me somalis back home are either 50% mentally ill or going to be soon ..itsd a sad case

Sad, what makes the situation worst is Western Somalis sending their mentally sick relatives back 'home', to a country that doesn't know how to cope with them. I am amazed at the logic of sending a sick person to a place that doesn't have the resources or professionals to support them.

[934]

i have a friend who worked in soomaaliya as Dr in one of soomaali hospital and she told me somalis back home are either 50% mentally ill or going to be soon ..itsd a sad case

Sad, what makes the situation worst is Western Somalis sending their mentally sick relatives back 'home', to a country that doesn't know how to cope with them. I am amazed at the logic of sending a sick person to a place that doesn't have the resources or professionals to support them.

For most part it is done out of of desperation and in the mistaken belief that once back home they will get better. Somalis have different understanding of mental illness which explain their desperate need to get a ticket to back home when a relative get ill. Also lots of us have this innate miss-trust of mental health institutions in the west and would rather see a relative suffer back home with no medical care, than to see them in an institution that is seen as making the problem worse. Call it paranoia if you will.

[Shamas]

i have a friend who worked in soomaaliya as Dr in one of soomaali hospital and she told me somalis back home are either 50% mentally ill or going to be soon ..itsd a sad case

Sad, what makes the situation worst is Western Somalis sending their mentally sick relatives back 'home', to a country that doesn't know how to cope with them. I am amazed at the logic of sending a sick person to a place that doesn't have the resources or professionals to support them.

For most part it is done out of of desperation and in the mistaken belief that once back home they will get better. Somalis have different understanding of mental illness which explain their desperate need to get a ticket to back home when a relative get ill. Also lots of us have this innate miss-trust of mental health institutions in the west and would rather see a relative suffer back home with no medical care, than to see them in an institution that is seen as making the problem worse. Call it paranoia if you will.

I see, is the different understanding to do with the society? the believe that a 'gaalo' disease has infected the person and being back home in the reality of Muslim Somalia the person will be well?