Mental Health Coalition – Sierra Leone

A greater part of most employees’ functional and productive years is being spent in the place of work. Real time spent in the office could be more than the sum-total time offered in the place of work; rather it includes the period of waking up, preparing for work, moving to and from the place of work on an average five day per week. Evidences shows that the capacity of an employee to work productively from an average age of 25 to almost 60 years is a lifetime investment made by any employees.
This repeated rigorous and energy consuming process in every way has its effect on the well-being of the employee. In most cases individuals take prompt action to responding to the physical health but not so with their mental and social thereby resulting to common mental problems which in turn reduce their productivity in the place of work. Such challenge is quite common in developing countries and undoubtedly true that it is one of the main causes for the increase common mental problems is workplace stress.
As we commemorate this year’s World Mental Health Day with the theme “Prioritizing Mental health in the Work Place” it is good to note that the World Health Organization in its definition of health reinforces that health could also include the capacity to participate in community life and not just the absence of disease. This definition also reiterates that for individuals to be considered to be in a state of wellbeing, they must be able to:
 work productively and fruitfully, and
 make a contribution to their communities
It further denotes that mental health encompasses the individual’s capacity to cope with both his/her internal or external needs such as:
 Functional employment role
 Quality relationship with colleges both in and outside the work place.
 Work in an enabling and empowering environment with no form of stigma, discrimination and exclusion when faced with common mental problems.
Existing studies relating to inter-relationship between mental health and work productivity in developed countries shows that 75% of the world’s labor force is based in developing countries and that depression for example is the second most common disorder across the world behind ischemic heart disease by 2020 and is expected to account for 15% of the total disease burden.
Sierra Leone as a country is not unique when it comes to the increase burden of employees being affected by common mental problems in the workplace. A country whose mental and emotional challenge predated its 11 years old civil war – an era considered to be the dark ages of Sierra Leone. A period constituting students’ protests, mass unemployment, terrors of robberies, by “High Way” and “Black December”, famine and drought to name but a few. Also followed was the rebel way that snuffed the lives of men, women and children who had very little or no political affiliations; and then the Ebola Virus Diseases Outbreak (a first of its kind health emergency) which further ravaged the weak health systems and structures of the country and undo the great resilience not only of the health professionals but community cohesions as well as the individual person. This successive crisis situations including other
incidences such as the Wellington Tanker Fire Outbreak, Flooding and the Corona Virus Disease Pandemic and in most recent times the collapse of houses are all increasing factors that affect the individual person and their contributions to productive work life.
Unfortunate, much has not been done to cater for and prioritizing mental health in the workplace in Sierra Leone rather worsens by it are issues such as:
 Unhealthy Workplace Conditions which suck away the energy of the individual employee with unproportioned remuneration coupled with unhealthy employer-employee relationships
 Globalization and Technology and its corresponding effect on the downsizing of staff in most places of work leading to unemployment and causing the rich to become richer and the poor remaining or becoming poorer.
 Workplace Stress which have gotten employees to a level of being pervasive resulting to exhaustion, anxiety and depression, and even substance abuse in some case.
 Mass Job Change in the workplace which precipitates additional stress due to changes in work culture and as well lead to absenteeism.
Whilst we commend Sierra Leone for the great strides it has made, in establishing a mental health directorate, upgrading the only Psychiatric and Teaching Hospital in the Country, established Mental Health Units in most districts’ government hospitals, training 2 psychiatrists and 21 mental health nurses in addition to the only two nurses and developing the literature for a new mental health bill, we call on them for immediate considerations at such times when employees are being faced with the burden of common mental problems to:
 Be robust in reviewing existing labor laws to cater for employees who shows signs of common mental problems.
 Support government and private institutions to include in-service well-being sessions for staff at regular intervals.
 Expedite the re-writing of the mental health bill and its subsequent passing into law.
 Consider with urgency of decriminalizing suicide as a possible means to supporting those affected by related health challenge.
 Increase the annual budget of mental to reflect the 5 percent as per global standards.
 Train more care providers, develop career paths and increased remunerations for mental health workers in the country.
As a Coalition in partnership with other mental health Civil Society Organizations, we are committed to campaign for a Sierra Leone that Prioritizes Mental Health in the Workplace.
Joshua A Duncan – Mental Health Coalition – Sierra Leone