by Abdiqani Askar, psychiatric practitioner, instructor and supervisor in mental health centres in Puntland, Somalia

Depression is one of the common mental disorders, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feeling guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite. Contributing factors to depression, particularly in Puntland, include:

• high unemployment rate among young people
• civil wars which devastated basics of life and everything vanished
• long standing drought
• there are no enough psychiatrists or practitioner psychiatrists with this large community of 4.2 million residents.

In the last 5 years I have been working in mental health hospitals in Puntland and I met a lot of patients. Most of the community do not understand well the problems of depression and they believe these symptoms are caused by other medical problems or nervous disorders and Magic myths. Many of the patients seek treatment for medical issues in paid hospitals and doctors diagnose them with typhoid or other medical problems and prescribe more long-term medication.

The Somali Mental Health Foundation (SMHF) is a mental health and psychosocial support organization in Somalia established in 2011 by the Somali diaspora in the USA, as a non-profit, non-government organization. It was registered in Sandusky, OH, USA and Somalia. It will operate in all the Somali regions. SMHF has created a group of professionals in mental health, who do community mobilization, treatment and training (traditional healers, PHC, teachers and students) in all Puntland. It’s more common in our country that when students have low grades or a change in behaviour, both teachers and parents punish them, which eventually causes educational drop-out and development of depression.

The Gardo mental hospital is the headquarter of the Mental Health Foundation in Puntland, where currently a psychiatrist and nurse psychiatric practitioner work, and it is the biggest referral centre in all regions of Puntland government.