Mental health is a global problem which needs global attention and awareness. The Africa Healing Foundation launched its mental health campaign initiative Mindplug #yourmindmatter.
The pandemic exposed how deeply rooted mental health problems exist in people’s lives. We have launched our Mindplug campaign in two countries, Zimbabwe, and the UK, with plans to expand in other countries in the future.
The Africa Healing Foundation mental health strategy seeks to bridge a gap between the people and getting mental health services. In a time where a lot is happening in life and with the Covid-19 pandemic adding onto the already existing social, economic, and mental pressures that come with life, seeking mental health care to most is a luxury or an unneeded expense in a country where money isn’t easy to come by.
Mental health stigma is still very much rooted in many African countries and other parts of the world. Here at the Africa Healing Foundation, we want to work collaboratively with the communities and other organizations to help end the stigma. Our objective is to drive our mental health campaign so we can raise awareness, so that people feel safe to have these conversations. The key is early prevention and intervention, and our health promotion strategy aims to do just that.
We are campaigning to end the mental health stigma and make mental health accessible to marginalized communities. We need to normalise mental health conversations so that people feel open and safe to talk about their mental health without the fear of prejudice or discrimination. Mental health problems can occur in anyone at any time therefore we need to ensure that we are all actively playing our part to combat this global crisis.
Africa Healing Foundation aims to foster a well-rounded inclusive foundation for all generations to build a better and comprehensive health care system and that starts with ensuring the communities are emotionally and mentally healthy to embark on this journey. Thus, in a bid to realize this goal, Africa Healing Foundation will utilize a number of services to support our strategy by:
Offering counselling and therapy which are meant to assist individuals in their day to day life.
This can be group, individual, family or couple sessions depending on the issues to be discussed or solved.
Offering support groups catering as psycho-social support systems for those with poor social support. The primary focus being to allow individuals to have a safe space where they can be true about themselves to themselves without fear of discrimination.
Another service will be home visitations which allow the home scenario to be evaluated so as to deal with any issues that may be arising in these particular families. Some issues that arise are often socialized aspects of life hence this service deciphers what stays or happens home.
Outreach programs will be also used so as to bring the service to the community. Closing this gap and bridging it by going into the community allows a larger base of people to be helped as opposed to waiting for people to come in search of mental health care.
Creation of various programs aimed to address mental health issues for various age groups and individuals e.g men,women, young parents, teenagers, young adults, older aged people e.t.c.
The services are meant to mainly promote the strategy and allow it to fully help improve and create mental health care seeking behavior. We need your help to fulfill our objectives and you can do this by either donating here or help us share the message by getting involved in our social media campaigns instagram or facebook.
Be That Man
At Africa Healing Foundation, our ‘Be That Man’ campaign is not just an idea but a signature of us standing in the gap of realising the need of mental health support to men. Most of the times men are indoctrinated to normalise the words ‘I am ok’ even though the reality speaks otherwise. We want to promote mental wellbeing for men and provide a platform for the men to feel safe to use their voice and speak out.
This then moulds a culture of bottling things inside or worse even leads to suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of the death for men for men just under 50. The Societal expectation contributes to added pressure for men which result to them feeling like they have failed. Issues identified to lead men to suicide are loneliness, job loss, unable to open up, breakdown of a relationship, addiction, separation from children, financial burdens etc. Men are often unable to talk about their situation due to fear of judgement and therefore this leads to bottled up emotions. On the other hand when they speak there are toxic messages that create barriers in men opening up such ‘man up’ despite what they may be going through.
Hence, #Be That Man is an awareness campaign to educate people on men’s mental health and offer mental health support to men and to also educate them the importance of opening up. The objective is to tackle mental health stigma and encourage positive mental health amongst. We want men to seek support before they get to crisis point and therefore implementing measures that support early prevention and intervention, thus why health promotion is at the heart of everything we do here at Africa Healing Foundation.
Maternal Mental Health: Mothers Wellness
Depression and anxiety are known to be the most common mental health problems
according to the NICE guidelines with around 12% of women experiencing depression and 13% experiencing anxiety at some point. Navigating motherhood can be difficult and therefore many mothers are susceptible to developing mental health problems and due to time constraints and lack of energy, they don’t have the time to understand what they feel which can lead to mental health problem going undetected.
We are working to support mother mental wellbeing, and this has taken off with our first ‘Mothers Wellness Project’. The objective to improve their mental wellbeing and build their confidence to help them to thrive in their communities. This will be a safe space for mothers to receive mental health support through psycho education, resilience and confidence building workshops, peer led and group activities. This will support them to also engage and build lasting connections in their communities to encourage social integration and minimise isolation and loneliness.
Mental Health Corner
Our mental health corner is a WhatsApp community where we provide support, psychoeducation, life coaching skills and a safe community to discuss mental health issues. It also seeks to eliminate barriers to information and support for mental health. In addition to that we provide valuable information on self-development and financial literacy.
If you’re looking for support and a safe community or just want to learn more about mental health and yourself, then join us today from anywhere in the world by emailing info@africahealing.org.
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How You Can Help Us
There’s more than one way that you can help. Whether you want to work, volunteer, or donate to Africa healing foundation, there are plenty of ways to join us in making a real difference. Click below to check out the opportunities to get involved and contact us if you have any questions. We appreciate your interest.