SSD 01 - MENTAL HEALTH COMMUNITY NURSING
Project Location
Mother of Mercy Hospital (MMH) is a Catholic Mission Hospital belonging to the Catholic Diocese of El Obeid (South Kordofan, Sudan) located in Gidel, South Kordofan. Its vision is ‘’to witness God’s love through the healing ministry by offering holistic quality healthcare services for the people of Nuba Mountains’’. It was established on the request of political and local community leaders. It was built during 2007, blessed on the 18 March 2008, received its first inpatients and outpatients on the 25 March, with the first operation on the 28 March. Since then, it has functioned as the main referral hospital for the Nuba Mountains, providing a wide range of health services to a population of over a million scattered through the region.
The Nuba Mountains are a remote and underdeveloped region of the Sudan characterized by poor health indicators and health services. In 2011 war broke out in the Nuba Mountains between the SPLM-N and the Sudanese government. The war is still going on because the people are still fighting for self determination. With the outbreak of the conflict, the mentally ill case has been at an increase, due to the trauma people encountered. Patients are often a burden to the community and family.
Most communities attribute the cause of the illness to other cultural issues yet these may not be the cause. Health awareness and education will facilitate the prompt access to health care mental services before it becomes too late. However, Mother of Mercy Hospital has limited capacity for psychiatric patients, being a general hospital with no psychiatric unit and no qualified psychiatric nurses.
Project description
The project is about reduction of morbidity and mortality and increase access to community mental health care services. The many years of conflict in the Nuba Mountains has contributed to economic and psychological stress resulting into mental break down. MMRTH is the only health facility in the region handling cases of mental health illness has limited capacity to handle all conditions especially psychiatric patients who at this time round are on the rise owing to the recent eruption of the fighting between the Rapid forces and the Government. Sadly, there is no provision for their care in the hospital. This situation is made worse by the presence of immense internally displaced people in the region and all seeking medical treatment in the hospital, most of whom are mainly due to psychological trauma.
As the hospital has no psychiatric unit and trained psychiatric nurses, the patients are a public nuisance at the moment and an additional stress to their families yet they deserve medical attention too like any other illness. MMRTH has initiated a program for home based and community psychiatric treatment but there are challenges due to limited resources and staffing. The drugs for these patients have posed a threat to the hospital and added to this is the need to train and refresh nurses to handle these cases both in the hospital and at home to improve drug compliance.
Psychiatric nursing is a specialized nursing, therefore there is need to support the patients while on treatment and set up facilities and structures for their social therapy both at home and hospital. The support towards the program stated is of paramount importance to the hospital and of the war affected region of Nuba.
The hospital offers a wide range of outpatient and inpatient services and also mental health services but there is need to strengthen the capacity. It has a capacity of 498 beds, which can be increased to approximately 600 for surgical camps and outbreaks. The hospital is composed of 256 contracted staff and 52 non-contracted workers. Most of the health workers live far from the hospital and so they are offered breakfast and lunch. In addition to this the hospital offers every patient dry ratio of food and to weak patients a specific diet to facilitate their recovery.
Objectives
- Reduce in morbidity and mortality and increase access to community mental health care services among the conflict affected populations in Nuba Mountains
- Increase access to quality mental health care for people seeking care at the six MMH-supported clinics and communities
- Provide mental health education and follow-up programs to patients
Beneficiaries
Direct: 600 mentally ill patients and trauma clients
Indirect: society
Referent sister of the project: sr Anita Cecilia
Project's costs