Mental health crisis in Africa: Urgent call for professional support amid rising suicide rates

“I say to my employees and all the other people that money you are chasing, why don’t you want to take that break? If you go out today, you will not be paid in the graveyard. In any case, ” he said. His warning is backed up by alarming statistics about the state of mental health of people across Africa.

The figures of the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that its African region has the highest number of people who commit suicide. In 2019, this was measured at 11.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the world average of 9 per 100,000. Africa’s WHO male suicide rate is the highest of all WHO regions at 18 per 100,000 population – compared to the world average of 12.4 per 100,000.

77 percent of suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries, with the highest number of suicides in Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Central African Republic, Botswana, Eritrea, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Coast is very high. Statistics aside, mental health in the workplace is largely overlooked, according to Patience Osekre, a psychologist in Accra, Ghana. “For workers, their productivity is affected and it affects their well-being and impact on other areas of work,” he told DW.

WHO’s 2024 World Mental Health Day – which focused on prioritizing mental health at work – highlighted how poor working conditions and work-related stress can exacerbate conditions there is mental health. WHO has emphasized the need for global action to protect and promote mental health at work, to ensure that people with mental health conditions are treated fairly and do not face discrimination, scandal, or violation of their human dignity.

Workers rarely work in good conditions

Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost each year due to stress and anxiety, at a cost of $1 trillion per year in lost productivity, according to WHO. “Uncertainty around the world, and insecurity is a big thing, it’s exhausting and it’s become a common issue in the workplace,” Osekre said. “We’re talking about your sense of judgment, decision-making, your choices, your lifestyle, all of this affects the way you work.”

Osekre added that since workers spend most of their time at work, their mental health needs to be prioritized. “We also need to know our emotions, understand how we feel and even have a vocabulary to be able to express how we feel,” Osekre said.

He noted that managers and supervisors can “persist” in increasing the workloads of their best employees in the hope of improving productivity. “These are people who want to do their best for the organization because it is important to their pride,” Koduwu said. “And so they keep going. We’ve had some of the best talent come out of this world and that’s because they couldn’t catch a break.”

Treatment options are lacking

Koduwu and Osekre agree that it would be good for businesses to pay attention to their employees, even in competitive job markets where every wage is valued. “As HR, we need to plan the workforce accordingly,” Koduwu said. “We’ve created a culture where people feel they have to take a lot to prove themselves. We’re trained not to complain. We’re trained to say it’s okay, God willing, you’ll get better. .

This includes allowing overworked workers to take time off to improve their mental health without the threat of losing their job. This, according to Osekre, will lead to better productivity from employees. “The work starts again with a force that would hit you, because this person was able to solve whatever problems he was going through at the time,” he told DW.

If you have severe depression or suicidal thoughts, don’t hesitate to seek professional help. You can find information on where to get such help, no matter where you live in the world, at this website: https://www.befrienders.org