Access to Mental Health Services in Southern Sudan is Limited

• Mental health services in Southern Sudan require urgent support.
• The clinic in Mundri is an important resource for the affected.
• Funding for mental health services is threatened due to budget cuts.

MUNDRI, Southern Sudan — Joy Falatia revealed that she was contemplating suicide after a man attacked her and took her children from her home in February 2024, after which the violence escalated. A desperate 35-year-old mother from Southern Sudan thought about self-harm.

“I wanted to take my children and drown them in the river,” she said, holding in her arms a newborn baby in a room with crumbling walls, where she currently lives.

However, after several months of support from charities and mental health assistance, which she utilizes from April, Falatia has made remarkable progress. She reported that suicidal thoughts are now gone, she wants to continue fighting for her children's future and cannot allow herself to keep them in school.

A specialized clinic in her hometown of Mundri, in the western state of Equatoria, is a rare and remarkable facility in the country, which needs more such services. Now that funding for programs with Italian and Greek donors is ending, her future remains uncertain.

This clinic is one of eight selected for a project that aims to provide mental health services to more than 20,000 people in this country of Eastern Africa. Launched in April 2022, this project has become a lifeline for patients like Falatia, in a country where mental health services are almost absent from the public health system.

The project is being implemented by a group of charitable organizations in collaboration with Amref Health Africa, which works with state medical centers, Catholic charities, and local radio stations.

In Southern Sudan, there is massive displacement of people due to the civil war, which began in 2013, when loyalist troops to President Salva Kiir clashed with those supporting Vice President Riek Machar. Despite the fact that a peace agreement was reached in 2018, the resumption of hostilities last January raised concerns about a possible "renewed large-scale conflict."

In Southern Sudan, 90% of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day, which exacerbates mental health struggles. The country has the fourth highest rate of suicide in Africa and ranks thirtieth in the world according to data from the World Health Organization.

Mental health issues are a major hurdle for the development of Southern Sudan, said Amref Health Africa representative Yakopo Rovarin. Close to a third of people who underwent treatment within the framework of the Amref project "show signs of psychological stress or mental disorders." "This burden for certain people, their families and communities is enormous and still remains unaddressed," he added.

Last month, the authorities in Juba recorded three times more incidents of suicide than had been documented in the previous twelve weeks in Southern Sudan. Dr. Atenge Ayel Longar, one of the few psychiatrists in Southern Sudan, noted that persistent feelings of hopelessness are the biggest influence on the population in conditions of constant threat of war.

In Mundri, where AP visited several mental health facilities in red, patients, including women who recently lost relatives due to the conflict, expressed their despair. In 2015, the Mundri region suffered from hostilities between opposition forces and government troops, which led to widespread displacement, looting, and sexual violence.

Ten years after the conflict began, many people have yet to recover from this episode and fear that similar violent incidents could occur again. As noted by local youth leader Paul Mondey, “in our villages, there are many vulnerable people,” which indicates serious consequences of the war for the mental health of the community.

The charitable organization Caritas organizes Self Help Plus sessions, a stress management course primarily attended by women, where they can learn simple techniques to reduce stress. Longar believes that the community should be equipped with tools "to heal and cope with their own challenges and break the cycle of trauma." However, she worries whether such support will remain stable, as funding continues to dwindle.

Funding for the project, which could save Falatia's life, will end in the fall without additional donor funds, which could lead to the closure of specialized mental health services in such medical centers, like the clinic in Mundri.

“What happened to me last month was very unsettling, but thoughts about the bad things can come back,” said Falatia, observing the garden she grows around her small house.

She hopes that the clinic will still exist, and when she can return to her "bad thoughts."

Tags: Well-being