The Awareness Raising Committee

The awareness raising committee is one of the committees set up by the mental health coalition of S/L to raise awareness on mental health and its related issues. The committee is headed by Mr. Ansinu Lamin who happens to be the Project Coordinator for the Community Association for Psychosocial Services (CAPS), one of the partners implementing the Enabling Access to Mental Health E C Project in S/L. This committee has a membership of 15, comprising representatives from different agencies and Government line ministries. The Health Education department under the ministry of Health and Sanitation is playing a pivotal role in this committee.

The committee at work

Presently, the committee is engage in the production of awareness raising materials on mental health that can be used to educate the wider public. These include leaflets, posters and a booklet. Issues discussed in these reading materials will include what mental health is, mental health policy and legislature, information about drugs and treatment options, restrain and stigma, mental health global picture etc.

The committee has held four meetings in the Enabling access to mental health Project Administration office at Bass street, Brookfield’s in Freetown. Through these meetings, the committee has successfully completed the production of two posters and the leaflets. The committee hopes to do pretesting of all the materials produced in a coalition general meeting before the printing. In complimenting this work, the committee shall be producing jingles, drama and at the same time engage in radio discussions right through the country to fully educate the people on mental health.

Submitted by:

Ansinu Lamin

Project Coordinator (CAPS)