Ferew Abebe is an Editor-In-Chief with Sendek, a weekly Amharic newspaper. He’s been covering health for years, but not mental health. He says mental health isn’t a readable topic, since it doesn’t affect the majority of the public. But data from the World Health Organization shows 15-percent of the adults here and 11-percent of children have mental disorders.
Even so, the psychiatrist-to-population ratio in Ethiopia is one-to-six million, and the stigma attached to mental illness often hinders early recognition and successful treatment. It’s a story the media has failed to pick up on. Even when the national health plan allowed the integration of psychiatric care into the general health system, when the chains used to tie up patients were finally abandoned, the media were not there to witness the changes.
For these reasons, I decided to hold a training session for health reporters on how to cover mental health issues. It was the first of its kind ever held in Ethiopia, and fit perfectly with my mission to improve the quality and quantity of health reports here. The idea was to present facts that journalists should know about mental health as well as to take a look at how poor and unbalanced press coverage of mental health issues fuels the stigma and reduces the quality of life for patients.
I was thrilled to get 38 participants who’ve been involved in health reporting for anywhere from two to 12 years. Most of them admit their knowledge of mental health and mental illness is very minimal. The training was designed to improve the quality and quantity of stories on such issues by first familiarizing the participants with the issues and elements of health journalism, so they were encouraged to share their experiences as health journalists.
Taddesse Adela is a freelance journalist who’s been covering mental health for the last two years. He produces the only radio show in the country that deals with mental health. It’s sponsored by Mental Health Society-Ethiopia, which has also been providing articles to the weekly Addis Admas newspaper. Although Tadesse has never had formal training either in journalism or health reporting, he said the best words of advice he ever received were from Dr. Dawit Wondimagegn, a psychiatrist and active member of the Mental Heath Society of Ethiopia: “Never forget that you are dealing with a sensitive issue.”
Dr. Wodimagegn was one of our guest speakers, and said a mental health problem is defined as the failure of the mental function in terms of thought, mood and behavior which impairs a patient’s productive capacity, relationships with others and ability to adapt to change.
The training was an eye-opener for most of the participants. Most of them, including Ferew Abebe are now planning to write articles on mental health and how it fits into the national health plan. Many of them said they are passionate to tell the untold story of mental health and mental illness in Ethiopia, and I am eager to see the stories unfolding in the weeks to come. Perhaps as this issue comes out of the shadows and into the light here, more people will seek treatment and be able to live healthier and more productive lives.