Mental Health: An Ill-Equipped Country

Writing this has been very difficult because our country, especially law enforcement needs a lot of sensitization when it comes to handling mental health issues. A video of a man who tried committing suicide has been making rounds on social media. In the failed suicide attempt, police were called to the scene to help get him down from the building. What was so disturbing is how those cops started beating up the guy. Imagine this man is already frustrated with life and then instead of offering him some comfort, you go ahead and beat him up? What is even sad is that this issue is not “trending” or rather, no one is discussing how the guy was handled by cops on social media. And as always, some are making fun of the guy, downright ugly comments.

You know sometimes you wonder why someone committed suicide yet they looked so happy or the too late “I wish they reached out.” The story of that guy being beaten up is the reason why people are dying silently with their mental health issues. People fear being judged, beaten, or even rejected when they are at their worst. It is sad. Very sad. Sorry to say this, but you can imagine how that guy felt after that incident, he probably wished he was dead. Imagine someone beating you, a grown man! Mind you, it is not that you have offended them, you are just trying to solve a problem in a way that you probably think is best, not that I recommend, but at that time, it is the only option.

We need to do better as a society. If there is something that should unite us, it is how we handle mental health issues. And especially with law enforcement. In my humble opinion, I think cops should not handle any mental health-related cases, rape, and domestic violence. They are just not equipped with the empathy and approach to handle these situations. Yes, I said what I said. Whilst I appreciate that some have a better approach, the majority, need to learn a lot. If the training system is meant to break cops, imagine how they will react to someone trying to commit suicide?

On the other hand, the government needs to do something, FAST. In a country where suicide rates in the police force are on the rise and nothing is being done, we are in trouble. In his Master’s Project Report on Assessment of The Patterns of Suicide Among Serving Law Enforcement Agents: A Study of The National Police Service, Kenya, Thami (2020) recommends that there needs to be decentralized counseling at the police station level. I couldn’t agree with this study because even policemen and women are human and they see a lot while on duty. These are bottled-up emotions, trauma, and stress while on the job. So, not to defend the acts of the police who beat up suicidal citizens, but how else would you expect a person working in this kind of environment to react?

My suggestion is that we need an overhaul of how we handle mental health in this country. We need to train public service providers better, we need better laws and most importantly, we need to stop denying that mental health issues do not exist in our society. It is no longer a non-African issue, it is now a global issue, and oh let me tell you, it will get worse if we do not do something soon! Today, I just wanted to pour my heart out and start this conversation.

Please share how else we can improve our approaches to mental health issues.

Yours,

TMV.