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13.
October
2017.
Linking up with Tanzania

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For immediate publication

Linking up with Tanzania

13 October 2017

A LEADING Tanzanian mental health clinician has been speaking of the value of a health partnership between CNWL and his own hospital.

Dr Erasmus Mndeme, Medical Director for Mirembe Hospital - the national referral hospital for mental health and substance misuse - says the Tanzania Link health partnership has led to fewer reported incidents on the wards because of techniques staff have been taught by CNWL in managing violence and aggression.

It has also led to a greater understanding and tolerance within the local community about mental ill-health and substance misuse.

Dr Mndeme said: "This has been mutually beneficial. Through the Link, we have been educating the community about substance misuse and about good recovery and we are spreading knowledge in the community. The community is becoming aware of what we are doing and are seeing practical evidence of people coming back to the community with a skill.

"We feel that as we scale up it will become possible to disseminate to the level where it has an effect at the policy level.

"Before the project we didn't have patients supporting other patients on aspects of hygiene, literacy and craft skills. Now we do.

"Once I went into one literacy session where a patient was supporting another to read and write and I asked how they felt.

The feedback was ‘We are no longer ignored because we've got the opportunity to help each other'. It's clear they feel motivated, their self-esteem is much better and they feel better. The hospital now has lots of experts who can help patients."

Dr Mndeme is spending six weeks studying CNWL's governance and management structures and processes. He believes that what he has been learning at CNWL will help him to run his hospital more efficiently and safely.

Set up in 2009, the two organisations have been developing substance use services at Mirembe Hospital in preparation for the opening of a new unit for patients with drug problems.

Much of the work has revolved around providing training for staff.

In between Mirembe developed a peer support programme as well as income generation and skills development schemes for patients. The project also included community education schemes that targeted mainly primary and secondary school age children.

Tanzania is a low income country with a critical shortage of mental health professionals and only 17 psychiatrists to serve its population of 44 million people. Furthermore, mental health is neglected in Tanzania because of stigma and competing health demands.

More information on how to support this project is onhttp://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/about-cnwl/tanzania-link/

Editor's notes

The attached photo is of Dr Mndeme