The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS)has unveiled 32 health facilities where residents within Nairobi county can access mental health care.
Through a notice, NMS announced the services that will be offered including psychotherapy and counseling, mental wellness clinic, psychiatry, school mental health, community mental health, child and adolescents’ mental health assessments as well as epilepsy clinic.
They are:
- All Level IV facilities including Mbagathi Hospital in Lang’ata, Mutuini Hospital in Dagoretti South, Mama Lucy Hospital in Embakasi West and Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Kamukunji.
- Level II and III facilities in Embakasi East sub county including Mukuru kwa Njenga, Embakasi East and Soweto-Kayole health centres and Dandora II, Kariobangi North and Kasarani health centres in Kasarani subcounty.
- Lunga Lunga, Makadara and Jericho health centres in Makadara Sub-county
- Lang’ata, Kibera Amref, and Kibera DO health centres in Lang’ata sub-county.
- Mathare North
- For child and adolescents mental health, Ngara Child-Friendly Clinic is the only one offering mental health care services from Monday to Friday.
- In Westlands, there are Kangemi and Westlands health centres, Mji wa Huruma dispensary and Lower Kabete Health Centre.
- In Embakasi West there are Kayole II and Umoja health centres.
Read: Kiambu Leading in Suicide Cases as 483 Kenyans Take Their Lives in 3 Months
This comes at a time when cases of mental illnesses have spiked in the country amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Addressing the same, NMS Director-General Mohammed Badi intimated that more expertise will be involved to ensure youths are not lost to mental illnesses.
“We do not want to lose our youths. We have dedicated our health services to take care of mental health by ensuring that we recruit enough psychiatrists and mental care experts,” Badi said.
Read Also: CS Matiang’i To Face Senate Over State of Mental Health in Police Service
In a report in July, at least 483 Kenyans committed suicide within three months.
In the list, Kiambu County topped with the highest number of people who had taken their lives through different methods.
According to the police data, men are more prone to committing suicide with mainly couples being affected. For instance, between March and June, 409 people were said to have recorded cases of life-threatening assault from different parts of the country.
County wise, Kiambu county was leading having recorded 109 suicide cases, followed by Murang’a with 37 cases, Kisii 25, Kakamega 24, Nyeri 21, Kisumu 21, Embu 20 Uasin Gishu 18, Nakuru, Makueni and Bomet 17 cases each.
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