Pan-Africanism and Family Mental Health: Is there any Link?

Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analyst
Dishma-Inc.
P.O. Box 8885,
Kampala-Uganda
Tel. +256392614655/+256752542504
dishma.imhs@gmail.com
www.situationhealthanalysis.blogspot.com

Pan-Africanism is a spirit, it is love, a feeling and an action towards betterment of the land of Africa and the life of people of its origin abroad. Family mental health, on the other hand, is the state of wellness cognitively, spiritually, culturally, socially, economically, environmentally, and even physically in a family environment. To achieve mental wellness, all spheres of person’s life must be interacting harmoniously with each other.

From a case of a client –who suddenly left work and began walking “aimlessly” on streets of Kampala, back home and away from it, accusing every one of her troubles –including those that cared much, losing understanding of the environment by 50%; identify reasons for walking away from work and from home distrustful of everyone and everything, it was found vital to find the extent of pan-Africanism in helping patient recover.

Interventions involved holding discussions colleagues in the field of psychology, with religious leaders, with a psychiatrist in Jinja Psychiatric Ward, reading, analysis of existing data on mental health, analysis of held data verses reviewed literature and professional opinions and recommendations, analysis of observed client behaviors, use of cognitive-based therapy, analysis and consideration of traditional medicine, consideration and analysis of Christian and Muslim prayers (or exorcist powers).

Integrated spirituality to counter lack of trust for anyone and raise self-control, enactment to prove to self that people accused –indeed loved her and wished her well, counseling to give direction, re-socialization with the right people (caring and loving) to gain positive identity (social networking sites like face book were brought into play) and, equally important, drug therapy.

Inculcated positive life values (as part of on-going counseling), like respect, love, tolerance forgiveness, flexibility, peaceful coexistence, harmony, patience, building on positives out of a trying situation, exploring personal development goals, giving back to society, appreciation of diverse cultures and religions, friendliness and talking as way to positive change others, exposure to inspiration books -containing lots of wisdom and/or life-skills -including the Bible and some elements of Islamic teaching.

Cognitive based therapy was highly effective at creating realistic images in the mind of the victim; psychologists met (4:1) preferred to address the case spiritually by seeking interventions of powerful, prayerful Christians; traditional healers where not in any way rightful in their work –only exploited the client by asking huge sums of money –sometimes for no positive results.

In the earliest stages of her illness, churches and Duwa prayers did not yield results despite the client spending a period of six months of residence at a church. They inflicted more fear to glue the patient to their services –so as to continue thriving financially.

The Jinja medical official associated the problem with unsatisfied libido –which made sense as it had been found that the client was a victim of a failed relationship –more so having given everything to secure it in vain.

Analyses of them all showed that the client had been abused during her teenage years causing her to be distrustful with exception of her friends and boy-friend.

That, then, got worsened by father’s abuse in the 20s and neglect by family members she thought were responsible for her wellbeing.

The final trigger was when the boy-friend she loved so much too off-loaded her –and whoever had hurt her in the past (including job loss) was made responsible with statements such as, “she took my boyfriend, she is be-witching me, I saw her during prayers by pastor and sheikh and so she was responsible.”

Nigerian movies were misleading as the patient, a fan of them, took all images for the truth and applying them in the day-to-day running of life. Such images included: a big scale of witchcraft, evils spirits, relationship breakdowns and confrontation –which greatly constituted her perceptions of the environment –be it towards people, animals, or objects.

A combination of drug therapy, good feeding, drinking a lot of fluids to meet bodily needs, counseling, re-experiencing motherly love –as if she was being reborn and re-introducing prayers at this stage, re-socialization to develop a new positive identity –using facilities like face-book to make connections to caring old friends and family members by phone as well as conducting visits to trustworthy and goodwill personalities –while keeping a temporary distance away from people listed to have hurt her –for at least a year, and re-orientation to the work settings were very effective at re-shaping her.

While churches and traditional healers remained prominent in healing practices, initially their approaches were not in anyway useful as they worsened the client’s state of mental wellness through imparting more fear that: “so” and “so” were responsible for the problem at hand.

Spirituality became most effective when introduced at the time a client was being furnished with mother’s love and care –who sooner introduces her to a worthwhile faith for further healing.

The ability of religion to solve human problems cannot be disputed. It is important to note the fact that, there are people in its leadership –who have selfish interests and continuously misguided clients for the sole aim of ripping big –financially. In fact, spirituality being above human understanding and power is excellent haven for the neglected sections of society, the mistreated, and the suffering ones.

When individuals lose trust and confidence in others or every other thing in life, it became an escape route or emergency door (by to going spiritual). But it all began with believing in order to experience the healing effect. Positive religions had means to restore broken social relationship and to cope with rejection.

Numerous studies indicate that the quality of child up-bringing influenced future of a child life confidence of the self, improved intelligence quotient, resilience and sense of trust in the self (self esteem). Brain studies demonstrated that early years were critical in the development of intelligence, personality, and social behavior before the age of three.

On the other hand, the media influences negatively the attitudes already held by individuals –where if a movie showed robbery, adultery, witch-craft, confrontations and murders, viewers took them for real life issues –and went on to form values based on what they have seen.

Mental health interventions call for a wholesome package of inputs that constitute food, fluids to drink, supported information by way of counseling, rightful spiritual guidance and rightful associates –who kept using constructive and positively transformational statements away from hurting people of the past and present.

Encouraging reading culture and exposure of books that impart real life values and skills empowered young people –such that: where there is no parent or doctor intervened in their life. Self liberation came from with knowledge and exposure to right role models. Megna in 2010 once wrote, “Through reading, I have learned a lot about life and the world I never would have known by watching TV for instance.”

In the final analysis, the client had been abused during her teenage years causing her to be distrustful with exception of her friends and boy-friend. That then got worsened by further abuse in 20s and neglect of family members she thought were responsible for her wellbeing.

The final trigger was when the boy-friend she loved so much too off-loaded her –and whoever had hurt her in the past was made responsible with statements such as, “she took my boyfriend, she is be-witching me, I saw her during prayers by pastor and sheik and so was responsible.”

It was a combination of abusive family, neglect and failed love relationship. These combined with negative media influences as Nigerian movies, limited social support to give guidance on coping and problem-solving gave for way panic attacks.

It is therefore important to note that children need love, understanding and acceptance through their teens -which cannot at all feature in broken families or under step-parent care (especially step-mothers).

Such can be a ground for all forms of child abuse -including unexplained torture, rebuking, bullish from mainly the male guardian, constant scrutiny in search for anything reflective of a negative label, and denial of equal opportunities with other children in the home.

Because of that, it is worthwhile that children in their adolescence grow up with their biological parent; in this case -the mother –while ensuring access to physical support through legal and gender support systems.

Patience and persistent matters a lot as no specific time line can be attached to complete healing. It is the kind that takes between one and half to two years. Moral support continues into the youthful and adult years –since no man is an island. We need each other for strength, encouragement, mutual assistance to achieve life goals.

With the concept of pan-Africanism too in line with the values of unity, cooperation, love in development, it serves a purpose in directing supportive forces against a social evil and assimilation of negative past together for a positive future –henceforth a means to control and prevent psychological trauma from individual level, to family level, to national level, and to global level –benefiting Africans in Africa and in Diaspora directly, and indirectly everyone –through meetings, bargaining and negotiation at different levels to solve problems and keep peace.