MENTAL HEALTH IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS PHYSICAL HEALTH
PROJECT OVERVIEW
SYDF is a youth-led non-governmental organization bringing impact to youth’s lives aiming to improve their lives in social, political, and economic aspect. We operate focused on four pillars being Health, education & skills, culture, and governance as it is our belief that they play a crucial role in enabling a young individual to unleash their potentials.
Health being one of our areas of expertise with its sub-divisions we ought to advocate for mental health as one of the critical aspects being left out in consideration of the well being of a person, we believe that “mental health is just as important as physical health”.
SYDF has targeted alcohol abusers and drug addicts considering their vulnerability to mental illness and their core predisposing factors which led to them adapting to high risky behaviours. In view that drug use and addiction can occur at any time in one’s life, but a lot of studies indicate this kind of abuse is typically common during adolescence the same period where first signs of mental illness usually manifest. Everyone has a story to tell on the factors which led them to the use of the illicit drugs/alcohol use but in highlights the common reasons being low socioeconomic status, unemployment, debts, peer pressure, copying behaviour developed in response to day to stressful situations, relationship disputes, violence, exclusion, loneliness, the urge to fit/not fit in the community in accordance with the society’s norms without leaving poor mental health.
According to WHO Mental health is a lot more than the absence of illness: it is an intrinsic part of our individual and collective health and well-being, one in eight people among 1,000 individuals have mental disorder globally making it approximately 970 million people, Temmingh HS et al in 2020 stated in Africa, the prevalence of substance use among patients with mental illness ranges from 21.3% to 69.2%.Tanzania’s neuropsychiatric disorders are estimated to contribute to 5.3 per cent of the global burden of disease. Kilaye et al in 2023 conducted a study at Muhimbili national hospital and found out prevalence of substance use among patients with mental illness was 32.7%, 21.7% with alcohol, 19.8% tobacco and 12.7% cannabis. Mental health and substance abuse are coherent to each other as one of it may affect the other or they may conjointly occur.
