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"speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
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"legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
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"content": "is not necessarily institution-based. There was a movement in the health reform sector around the world to de-institutionalise mental health care. This is because it has been found - as one of the Senators has said - that sometimes institutionalising and putting people in centres makes them worse because of the stigma associated with mental illness. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy to note that a lot of care has gone into looking at the rights issues, standards, prevention, discrimination and other liberties that come with this issue. However, as the Senate, there is one area that we need to strengthen; this is the community-based care. Community-based care is the way to go in the sense that there are two levels of mental health. There is the severe mental health, where somebody is mentally ill and there are the rest of us, who at different times face mental challenges. This includes, for example, anybody who has suffered the loss of a loved or given birth and suffered PPD. Anybody who has gone through traumatic life events, such as divorce, knows that at certain points in our lives, we all suffer mental disorder or illness. It may not last as long as the severe ones, but we might experience it at any one time. Our response to it, both legislatively, policy wise, resourcing and any other, should look at the two levels; the severe mental illness and the other mental illnesses suffered by most of the population. It could be because of teenage hormones, childbirth hormones and et cetera. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, distinguishing between these two areas would be very important. This is where community and family-based care comes in. We then move away from looking at mental health from just the clinical aspect to a more community- based, more preventive, scrutiny, promotion of health, screening and such things. From what I have seen, this Bill is very strong on rights of individuals with mental health disorders, institutions such as psychiatric care and health-based facilities both at national and country levels. However, for this Bill to become cutting edge and to be part of a bigger reform agenda for health in this country, we need to also include and strengthen community-based care with regards to mental health. I am also happy that this Bill has looked at both levels of government; that is the national and county governments, and has given obligations to each one of them. However, I think we need to make sure that the funding of this aspect, especially with regards to research, falls entirely on the national Government. They should ensure research on mental health reform is taken care of and is well resourced. There are countries that know how many suicides are mental health-related out of the percentages of suicides that have happened in the last few days. There are countries that know of the number of young people in juvenile facilities and how many are there as a result of mental health disorders. We have no clue. In fact, even what we are saying here is just guesswork. We are just guessing and saying: “This must be related to mental health.” Let us have a lot of emphasis on research so that we engage in evidence-based care for health reforms to take root, to be sustainable and attract resources, as we go forward. It is only in evidence-based healthcare that we can attract resources both from within the country and also internationally. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know that we have seen an explosion of Motions and other pieces of legislation, even in this House, where we are always propagating for the establishment of health facilities in every county for each and every disease. I do not The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}