Situational Analysis of the Mental Health System in the West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

Cameroon is a lower middle-income country in Central Africa with a population of 25 million people spread over 475,440 km2. It has a growing burden of mental illnesses with neuropsychiatric disorders representing 6.1% of the burden of all diseases. Also, the resources available for mental illnesses are very insufficient. This is the reason why building a mental health system geared towards efficiency and efficacy is an emergency for the future of mental health in Cameroon. This can only be achieved through a deep understanding of the current state of mental health in Cameroon, what we are intending to do in this study, making use of the WHO assessment instrument for mental health systems (WHO AIMS). We will are first focusing on the west region of the country as a starting point. hope this study will aid as in Ethiopia in making better decisions and contributions to the improvement of the mental health system of Cameroon. Our aim is to carry out a landscaping and situational analysis of the West region of Cameroon’s mental health system keeping WHO AIMS in mind. To achieve this, used the WHO AIMS to interview the key members of the mental health system of the region, collected data on the year 2020. The data collected was grouped and expressed in frequencies, proportions and absolute numbers. At the end of this study, the main findings are that mental health services are available in 6 departments out of the 20 department of the region. These services are mainly offered by mental health nurses, then neurologist and finally psychologists.