Uganda's youth mental health crisis: a community challenge

Uganda's Butabika Mental Psychiatric Hospital is sounding the alarm about a serious mental health crisis affecting communities across the country.

Young people under the age of 17 are particularly affected, largely due to drug and alcohol use.

Godfrey Mukiisa has reduced his use of addictive substances after realising his past mistakes.

He has been drug-free for about a year and a half, but reflects on how two decades of heroin use ruined his life.

Mukiisa says: "A friend of mine was influenced by marijuana and encouraged me to try it. That was my introduction to drugs."

He dropped out of sixth grade school at the age of 17 and ran away from home to join other drug users in a Kampala ghetto, which drastically changed his life.

Mukiisa continues: "As a young man, I owned a car, but I sold it because of drugs. My family is no longer with me; they've even moved abroad".

An organisation dedicated to helping young people recover from addiction provided him with therapy and he is now on the road to recovery.

Psychiatrists at Uganda's mental hospital say drug abuse among young people is spiralling out of control.

Dr Irene Apio Wengi, a consultant psychiatrist at Butabika Hospital, says: "Parents often don't discuss these issues with their children, leaving them vulnerable to peer influence."

In Uganda, drug use among young people is estimated at 70%, higher than in other East African countries. The trade in illicit drugs and alcohol is a major challenge for the country.

Psychiatrists are calling for more awareness campaigns in schools and communities.