Uganda has joined the rest of the world today to commemorate the World Mental Health Day. The Uganda police Force is joining this in a very special way by enrolling a five-year strategy to address mental health challenges.
Dr Moses Byaruhanga, the director of Police Health Services, said the strategy majorly targets the challenges faced by their officers and it involves counselling and will start with officers from Kampala Metropolitan (KMP). It will then be rolled out to the rest of the country.
“We have put up a task force and for about two weeks, we have had detailed discussions on what we are going to do in this plan. Currently we are going to start with the Kampala Metropolitan (KMP) area because that’s where we have the largest deployment of our personnel; about 13,000 to 16,000,” Dr Byaruhanga said.
Apparently, daily meetings on police officers’ welfare in the five-year strategy have been happening for about a month now. These will happen for about four months In Kampala Metropolitan area before they are rolled out to other policing areas.
The development comes following the rising number of suicide cases amongst officers the latest being that of Alfred Obadia, 32. The late Obadia, according to his wife, shot himself with a hand pistol in their bedroom.
Officials attribute the fatalities to poor welfare, low income, un-serviced bank loans and alcoholism. Dr Byaruhanga revealed that they will hold sessions for top commanders in the different units.
These shall then train their colleagues on how to stay mentally sound while on duty.
“We are going to form another task force team from the top level and for all those who require some bit of counselling and training, we are going to bring them together. We shall take them to Kabalye Police Training School and give them a one-month training, and then later re-deploy them,” Dr Byaruhanga said.
He also appealed to police commanders to be amiable to lower staff and not to keep a deaf ear on their concerns.
