Alcohol consumption should start at 21 years - Govt
Simon Peter Tumwine
Journalist @New Vision
____________________
The acting commissioner in charge of mental health, alcohol, and substance abuse in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Hafsa Lukwata has said that alcohol consumption should start at 21 years of age.
“Alcohol is a big healthcare issue in the country and we are making all efforts to address it,” Lukwata said.
She made the revelation while presiding over the launch of a new book concerning depression and how to tackle it at Makerere University on Friday.
Titled High Powers, the book was authored by China Scherz, George Mpanga, and Sarah Namirembe.
She noted that they are also developing guidelines to regulate rehabilitation centers so that they have proper ways of handling patients. Authors Sarah Namirembe, George Mpanga and China Scherz looking on as Hafsa Lukwata the acting assistant commissioner Mental Health and Control of Substance abuse launches their book titled Higher powers: Alcohol and After in Uganda’s capital city.
“We appreciate the role of rehabilitation centers in the healing of patients of mental problems, alcoholics, and depression but we are developing guidelines to regulate them so that they have proper ways of handling patients,” Lukwata said.
Lukwata commended the book's authors saying it will stimulate debate on the importance of churches, shrines, and herbalists in the fight against alcoholism and substance abuse.
“As a ministry, we welcome all forms of therapy in addressing the mental health gap,” Lukwata said.
Dr. David Basangwa, the former executive director of Butabika Hospital said the book highlights the importance of traditional healthcare in complementing biomedical healthcare.
“This is a very exciting book as it goes deep in discussing the alcohol problems in the country. I appeal to the Ministry of Health to consider the recommendations made in this book for policy making,” Basangwa said.
The book which captures the voices of about 300 people who were found drinking in bars, rehabilitation centers, alcoholics anonymous fellowships, churches, herbalist clinics, and shrines underscores the importance of both traditional and non-biomedical forms of therapy in addressing the global mental health gap.
The traditional and non-biomedical forms of therapy include taking people with mental sickness to churches and mosques, shrines, herbalists, and counsellors among others.
“While the case studies we have presented in this book do not constitute a comparative efficacy study, they do reveal a glimpse into forms of treatment that may help in addressing the global mental health gap,” Sarah Namirembe said.
Namirembe said while building an evidentiary basis for such treatments may not be easy as they are difficult to standardise, this should not make them invisible.
“These forms of treatment could perhaps be explored as possible ways of attending to those not currently engaged in care for alcoholic use disorders,” she said.
She observed while the national mental health policies across sub-Saharan Africa espouse a commitment to primary care and community participation in most cases they do not reflect the aims of decolonization that shaped the definition of primary health care at Alma Ata instead in their commitment to evidence-based medicine and human rights, non-biomedical practitioners end up defined primarily as those who need to be educated and sensitised so that they can appropriately refer their clients to the hospital.
“While bio-medical referral may be appropriate for many illnesses, healers working in other therapeutic paradigms may also have something to offer and this may be especially true in the case of mental health,” Namirembe noted.
As countries including Uganda aim to strengthen the regulation of traditional and complementary medicine by enacting laws such as the Traditional and Complementary Medicines Act, of 2019 in Uganda, Namirembe said there is a need to attend to how social technologies deployed by healers may be important just like pharmacologically active therapies that herbalists deploy.
Mpanga reasons that if the country is to include people who have sought care at churches, shrines, and herbal medicine shops, the number of people who have accessed care for substance use disorders, the treatment gap might be smaller.
“There remains considerable work to be done to decide whether this would be an appropriate inclusion but our observations suggest that there is reason to explore this line of inquiry,” Mpanga argued.
China said their research revealed that having a model of alcohol use disorders gives community members reason to think that profound transformation may be possible as it allows people to form different kinds of relationships with people in recovery in the present and to live with a sense of confidence about what they may become in future.
“Considering the transformative potential of the spiritual experiences and ritual engagements in this book, it requires an understanding of how collective beliefs shape lives. If people have such collective faith that they have been truly transformed this can open new possibilities for their incorporation into communities of care,” China noted.
The authors said their research was aimed at exploring alternative treatment modalities for mental disorders.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that approximately 76 to 85% of people with mental health disorders in low-and middle-income countries have not received treatment.
In Uganda, the number of children and youth aged 15 to 24 years has increased and this is largely blamed on the use of marijuana, heroin, and others.
No Comment