Mental Health Center

In Africa, people with mental disorders face stigma, discrimination, violations of their human rights and difficulties in accessing mental health services, which often do not exist in the poorest regions. Humanitarian organisations, NGOs and associations such as Saint Camille try to tackle this problem by covering the basic needs of people with mental illness so that their dignity is restored.

I take part, as reviewer, in the construction of the largest medical care centre built by Saint Camille in Benin, which also includes vocational training modules for reintegration. The new centre, which will house 200 patients, is located in Dassa, a city of 113,000 inhabitants in southern Benin, about 190 km north of Porto-Novo.

The main objective is to build the Dassa centre for the care of people with mental illness and drug addiction, with a medical dispensary that also serves the surrounding population. The centre will have four modules for men and women with mental illness and for men and women whose drug addiction has developed into mental illness, plus two modules dedicated to reintegration work.

Further objectives are food and pharmaceutical self-sufficiency for psychiatric treatment in the centre, training and technical assistance for the staff who care for patients (psychiatrists and operators), and awareness-raising in national and local communities through organised meetings with educational material.

Why the centre is needed

• Overflow of patients in Benin.
• Women and men need separate spaces: sharing a centre is difficult, especially for women, who are sometimes negatively affected.
• Drug addiction and mental disorders are closely related, and no effective solution has been found.
• Drug addicts and other patients need different modules: living together can transmit dependence and aggravate the situation.