Morocco needs more mental health professionals

25/02/2007

A new mental health strategy in Morocco aims to integrate mental health care into medical practice. But the country is suffering from a shortage of psychiatrists and trained professionals.

By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat -- 25/02/07

[Sarah Touahri] Moroccan Minister of Health Mohamed Cheikh Biadilah (centre) attends the launch of the new mental health strategy.

A new mental health strategy in Morocco faces a shortage of mental care professionals for its implementation. The strategy, launched on February 22nd, aims to integrate mental health care into everyday medical practice. It also ends the practice of putting the homeless and drug addicts in asylums.

Jalal Toufik, the head of Morocco’s largest psychiatric hospital, Arrazi, believes the new vision will enable the government to implement a comprehensive, fully integrated and efficient mental health system which will cover promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, care and social re-integration. But this, he says, will require the availability of enough specialist staff committed to the plan and are aware of its importance.

Morocco has a total of 300 practising psychiatrists, or one per 100,000 inhabitants. In 1970, there were just two throughout the whole country. "At the moment, even with a population ignorant of mental illness which tends to resort to traditional methods, we’re still having difficulty meeting demand. Imagine if the entire population suddenly found out about our services -- it would be a disaster. There is very little provision here, much less than in neighbouring Algeria or Tunisia," Toufik told Magharebia. He said that a country such as Morocco needs more trained professionals such as psychiatrists, child psychiatrists, psychologists, child psychologists and social workers.

A few psychiatric units have already opened this year in regional hospitals in Laayoune, Essaouira, Taza and Casablanca. A child psychiatry program is currently under way in Rabat.

A 2003 national mental health survey shows that mental illness is not limited to any one specific sector or category of the population. It affects rich and poor alike, in both cities and rural areas. However, the incidence of mental illness seems to be greatest in younger people with little or no education and no job.

In the survey, carried out by the Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organisation, 48.9% of those surveyed showed at least one symptom of poor mental health -- ranging from simple nervous ticks to more serious symptoms indicating more severe anxiety or depression. Psychosis was experienced by 5.6% at some point during their lifetime. Drug use is now affecting people at increasingly early ages and a clear transition is emerging from the use of hard drugs -- mainly cannabis and psychotropic drugs -- to alcohol abuse and the use of hard injecting drugs, particularly heroin and cocaine. This is happening mainly in large cities.

During the opening session of a national conference on the launch of the new mental health strategy, Health Minister Mohamed Cheikh Biadilah said that the survey results fall within the normal international range, especially when compared to those of certain western countries such as France and the United States. "However, they are not comparable with those of countries similar to our own for the simple reason that no such research has been carried out either in North or sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of a few studies in certain cities: Algiers in Algeria, Nouakchott in Mauritania and Antananarivo in Madagascar," he stressed.