Telemedicine services needed to combat mental health struggle in Africa
Could telemedicine be the solution to a lack of mental health assistance in Africa?
For some time now, mental wellness has been a point of contention in Africa – indeed, across the world. But with Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns in place, as well as the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic, the state of people’s health and wellbeing has decreased drastically.
A new report from The Lancet recommends telemedicine could be the key to closing the mental health gap in the continent of Africa. If providers can work with the new guidance for mental health and psychosocial support issued by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), they can wield their telemedicine offerings to provide remote virtual care for these international patients.
There are many factors contributing to a lack of mental health support in Africa
According to The Lancet’s study, the lack of mental health assistance in Africa is down to numerous factors:
- Poverty, infant and maternal mortality, and infectious diseases have meant that the importance of mental health has often been overlooked
- Low awareness of mental health conditions paired with the ‘stigma’ and the perception that mental health illness is ‘untreatable’
- Africa is lacking in mental health experts, with most of the countries with the fewest mental health professionals per 100,000 population being in Africa
- The numbers of hospital beds for patients with mental illness and coverage for outpatient facilities in Africa are lower than the global average
Telemedicine to the rescue?
We already know that the provision of quality healthcare facilities varies drastically across the continent of Africa – with people often having to drive sometimes over two hours to reach the nearest hospital or clinic. So telemedical services are already a clear solution to tackling this imbalance.
With the onset of the Covid-19 restrictions, healthcare facilities in Africa were also forced to move to telehealth methods as a means to keep on top of their patient load, as many people were unable to attend hospitals and clinics in person.
Telemedicine could also be key to solving the problem of a lack of mental health professionals in Africa, as telemedicine treatments can be outsourced globally to providers in various parts of the world.
Assisting expats in the content of Africa
The Lancet even noted that according to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), mobile telephone connections in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to increase from 816 million in 2019 to 1.05 billion in 2025, and Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya already have a telecommunications density exceeding 100 per cent. The platform for telehealth’s adoption is already there, now assistance providers just need to fill the gap with coverage that includes telemedicine offerings.
What’s more, as South Africa is one of the world’s popular destination for expats [iexpats.com ranked it as the seventh most popular destination for Brits moving abroad], there’s clearly a market for enhanced international employee assistance services here. Now is the time to respond to the growing need for improved mental health assistance.