By: NewsFeed Sierra Leone
After being abandoned and dismissed from workplaces on several occasions due to her mental health, SUCCEED Sierra Leone’s intervention pioneered the transformation of Esther Moses Kamara, who is now serving as the institution’s Peer Researcher and also pursuing her tertiary education at the University of Makeni.
“Since my first episode in the 2002/03 academic year to 2018, those years in my life have been nothing but harrowing as a result of mental health. I encountered many sufferings including stigmatization, and discrimination and lost many jobs among others,” Kamara told NewsFeed Sierra Leone.
“Glory be to God for the last six years, I am grateful to SUCCEED Sierra Leone for this support. Apart from the job the institution offered me, I am also receiving my medication every two months in Freetown,” she continued.
Kamara’s testimony at this year’s World Mental Health Day commemoration organised by Support, Comprehensive Care and Empowerment of People with Psychosocial Disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SUCCEED) in collaboration with UniMak’s Clinical Psychology Department hosted at the Fatima Campus Auditorium Makeni, on Thursday, October 10, 2024, affirmed the urgent need to prioritize mental health in the workplace to further prevent the rate at which citizens are losing jobs that will increase unemployment in Sierra Leone.
Elaborating on their success stories as an international research consortium, Amjata Bayoh, the Research Coordinator of SUCCEED Sierra Leone, says ten individuals who were living with psychosis have been transformed into entrepreneurs and others acquired skills training through the recently concluded six-month research project.
“This shows that mental health is like any other problem, with the right care and support people will improve,” he added.
Looking at the bigger picture, Bayoh disclosed that they have commenced enrollment for the next phase of the project which will last for a year, targeting sixty-two individuals and their family members in Western Area Urban, in partnership with Mental Health Coalition.
In normalising the conversation of mental health and amplifying the call for it to be prioritised in the workplace, the commemoration was graced by policymakers, civil society activists, students from various tertiary institutions and pupils from St Francis Secondary School Makeni.