By Ibrahim S. Bangura
The Advocacy for the Rehabilitation of Mentally Disadvantaged Victims (ARMeD) in Sierra Leone, has on Tuesday October 31, 2023 collaborated with the Ballanta Academy of Music and Performing Arts, to hold its second Mental Health Symposium in commemoration of World Mental Health Day and also to raise awareness about the challenges in mental health.
The theme of the symposium was ‘Mental Health is a Universal Human Right’. It focused on the use of music as a therapeutic and mitigating tool to the effects of mental health on patients in Sierra Leone.
Dr. Abdulai Jalloh, a consultant Psychiatrist and Global Mental Health Expert Member NDLEA Advisory Board was the keynote speaker at the event which was also attended by, the co-founder of Ballanta Academy of Music and Performing Arts; Dr. Kitty Fadlu-Deen, the Executive Director Albinism Royal Foundation; Pastor Marrah Ngaiwa and others.
Held at Ballanta’s Logie Wright Auditorium, the event showcased were music, poetry, short films and drama performances by youths. The performances presented various challenges in mental healthare, it causes and the means of mitigating the effects of the disease.
According to Lucy Cecilia Lamin, the Executive Director of ARMeD Victims, it is crucial for everyone to have knowledge in mental health. She said that mental illness is a leading cause of disability generally, but added that it could particularly manifest in the form of severe emotional, behavioral and physical health issues if left untreated. She stated that the development of any community lies in the hands of people in healthy mental conditions.
Lamin advised people to seek professional therapists when they experience stress, depression, anxiety, etc., which according to her are the common causes of mental health conditions.
“Immediately seek a professional therapist if you start behaving abnormally. Mental health conditions can lead to trauma and they can also lead to behaviors that can cost people their lives,” she said.
ARMeD was founded in 2013 but gained its legal status as an independent community-based organization in 2020. According to Mohamed Bangalie, a member of the advocacy group, they aim at promoting mental wellbeing among children and young people in Sierra Leone.
Bangalie said their programmes seek to represent, promote, advocate, and lobby service providers for the enhancement of the wellbeing and empowerment of persons with mental health challenges and other vulnerable groups.
According to him, though the organization has made a lot of achievements in the past years, they still need support to undertake more activities and expand their projects. “We don’t have adequate funding to undertake more activities and expand our projects. We don’t have unlimited livelihood opportunities for our members. The organization lacks a safe space for our members to get empowered before reintegration to communities. We are also limited to psychosocial support units to promote more rehabilitation services.”
Bangalie called for support from the Government of Sierra Leone and other non-governmental organizations to maximize the proficiency and success with which it rolls out its activities.
Dr. Jalloh explained that mental health is a universal human right which everyone must fully enjoy in Sierra Leone.
“But lack of human resources including psychologists, medical social workers, among others in Sierra Leone, has limited people with mental health conditions to access effective services,” Dr. Jalloh said. He commended ARMeD Victims SL for their initiatives and for collaborating with Ballanta Academy. He said that music is one of the most important tools that can effectively mitigate mental health challenges in the communities. “In my stress mood, I always listen to music. It was a brilliant idea for ARMeD Victims to partner with Ballanta Academy,” he said.
Pastor Sarah Ngaiwa, Executive Director of the Albinism Royal Foundation gave an impassioned plea for people to understand the disadvantages which people with albinism face, and to also empathize with them. Their mental health challenges are mainly caused by the general public who could be more sympathetic to their plight.
According to Dr. Fadlu-Deen, mental health conditions are common is something everyone lives with, but the condition is a question of balance in everyone’s life. “If we can strive to create a balance, we will be much better equipped to deal with stress which is one of the causes of mental health. I practice meditation to deal with stress, and I have also practiced yoga,” she said.
She explained that she met Lucy at Ballanta when she was a voice student. She said in one of their meetings Lucy attended while they were discussing how they could reach out to many people with their services at Ballanta, Lucy came up with the idea of introducing music to the disadvantaged communities in Freetown. “That was a brilliant idea. We know that music is used as a therapy in many places consciously and unconsciously. Music is used to stir warriors; it is used to say goodbye to people when they are put down to earth to rest; music is used in weddings, etc. Music is therapy particularly for disadvantaged people, like WayOut does where they encourage many young people to produce their own music and they succeed,” she explained.
Dr. Fadlu-Deen commended ARMeD Victims SL for their initiative to use music as a therapeutic tool to mitigate mental health conditions in Sierra Leone.
The symposium called for the health community to focus on mental health and channel funds and resources to organizations such as ARMeD to reach the hundreds of young people who can be shown the way to better health and thus contribute to national development.