Browsing: mental health

This comes after a few weeks ago, a law firm threatened to sue Meta (formerly Facebook) and Sama over the alleged unsafe and unfair work conditions dolled on its content moderators. 

Nzili and Sumbi Advocates alleged that Sama had breached a number of rights including the health and privacy of its Kenyan and international staff. 

The law firm demanded that both Meta and Sama adhere to Kenya’s labour, privacy and health laws, including that it provides its content moderators with adequate mental health insurance and better compensation.

Additionally, the law firm demanded that the two firms recruit qualified and experienced health professionals for the content moderators. …

According to the research finding, even though a minimum of 5%, of national health budgets, should be dedicated to mental health in low-income countries, most African countries still spend less than 1%.

Even though there is high-level policy commitment on paper in most African countries, however,  allocation of appropriate budgets and human resources for mental health still lags woefully behind the rest of the world.

For example, in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa more than 90% of people living with mental illness do not receive any form of evidence-based care, the report points out.

Experts warn that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a worse impact on mental health. Due to the related economic impact of the pandemic which left millions without jobs and millions of others under-employed, mental health cases are worse due to elevated levels of stress, anxiety, social isolation and domestic disputes to mention but a few.…

Suicide has become a major urgent public health crisis in the continent and has led to the premature death of especially productive youth in their prime—the future builders of the continent.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 700,000 persons die by suicide every year globally and it is the fourth leading cause of death among 15 to 29-year olds.  From job losses, trauma, abuse, mental health disorders and barriers to accessing health care these are just but a few triggers to committing suicide by many millennials. …