What Is Mental Health?
How Do We Define Mental Health?
Our mental health refers to our emotional, psychological and social well being. The state of our mental health impacts the way we feel about ourselves and our lives, how we think and how we behave. It impacts:
- How we function at work or school
- Our relationships with friends and family
- How to cope with the stresses and worries of normal life
- Our ability to carry out our personal responsibilities
- Our physical health. For example, high stress levels can increase our chances of getting a stress-related illness
It’s normal for all of us to have difficult emotions from time to time. For most people, these feelings are only temporary and won’t cause any long-term problems. However, for some people, these negative feelings can become worse over time and lead to the development of a mental health condition.
Struggling with your mental health doesn’t mean you’re weak and it’s not something that’s all in your head. If your mental health problems are persistent and ongoing, it’s a brave and important step to admit that you need support. Statistics on mental health show that 1 in 6 people report experiencing symptoms of common mental health problems in any given week. It’s likely it’s affecting more people around you than you realize.
How are Mental Health Conditions Treated?
Once a mental health professional, like a consultant psychiatrist, has assessed your symptoms and individual needs, they can work with you to establish what will be the most effective treatments for you.
Vital Africa provides many evidence-based treatments, structured within National Health guidelines, that can help you to overcome the difficulties you’ve been experiencing and set you on a path to improve your well being in the long term.
Treatment programmes
Our treatment programmes are delivered by a world-class team of therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists at our network of Kenyan hospital sites and well being centers. Tailored to your needs, each programme can be scaled up or down depending on the level of support needed for your recovery.
Treatment programmes with Vital Africa include:
Inpatient (residential)
For the most intensive treatment, you can stay at one of our mental health facilities on a residential basis. Here, you can receive round-the-clock care, expert therapy, well being activities and other effective treatments that puts the focus on your recovery.
In inpatient treatment, you’re able to recover away from the stresses of normal life and in an environment that’s specifically designed for recovery from mental health disorders.
Day care and outpatient
This is when you attend a hospital site or well being centre for a set number of days, half-days or hourly sessions to receive mental health treatment and therapy. This type of treatment is flexible and allows you to work on your recovery around some of your other responsibilities at home and work.
Therapy
Therapy gives you dedicated time and space to talk through the difficulties you’ve experienced in your life and your current struggles. With the help of a trained therapist, you can learn to process and deal with problems in your life, develop coping strategies to overcome stresses in the future, and develop a more healthy, sustainable mindset that delivers positive mental health.
There are many types of therapy. The one that’s right for you will depend on your condition and other individual circumstances. Common types of therapy used for mental health disorders include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – focuses on how our thoughts and beliefs affect our behaviors and actions, developing coping skills so we can better deal with problems in our lives. It is used to treat a wide range of mental health disorders including treatment for depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) – built on top of CBT, but focuses on how the individual can learn to understand and accept themselves to reduce dysfunctional and distressing emotions. It is used to help people with personality disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder.
Therapy can come in one of a few formats. It can be done on a one-to-one basis, with your family and friends or as part of a group with other people who are in recovery.
