Miria’s Story Miria is one of three nurses currently being sponsored by Jamie’s Fund to train as a Psychiatric Clinical Officer (PCO). This course is only offered at the Butabika training school, part of the national psychiatric hospital, near Kampala. This is about four hours by bus from her home where her husband has to […]
In mid-March, just before the Covid 19 internal travel restrictions were imposed in Uganda, the mental health team from Kagando Hospital went out by motorbike to hold an outreach clinic at Maliba, about 25 miles away. Joseph, the Psychiatric Clinical Officer (PCO) led the clinic, Rachel, one of the regular MH nurses was helping, and […]
As much of the world has been engaged in coping with the Covid 19 pandemic, we have been keeping in touch with our partner hospitals in Uganda. We were keen to understand the challenges they have been facing, and how they have been responding. Towards the end of May, we contacted all our active partners, […]
An Important aspect of mental health work in Uganda, is to offer the local community an alternative understanding of mental ill health. Traditional beliefs about epilepsy and mental ill health can be unhelpful, and delay or prevent the person accessing healthcare. After all, if you believe that your child’s fits are because he or she […]
The Ugandan hospitals are facing hard times at the moment, as are many of the local people. The initial lockdown because of Covid was eased slightly on the 5th of May but there is still no public or private transport allowed without specific authorisation. This makes it hard for people to get to hospitals when […]
“Esther”, one of the three women we are sponsoring to train as a psychiatric clinical officer sent a message telling us how things aren’t working for her in Uganda. They were sent home from the training school in Kampala when all institutions were closed by the Government. They were told that when they came back […]
Our friend and colleague Lamet is a clinical officer in the Church of Uganda Hospital in Mukono, a township a few miles outside Kampala. He thought this story worth sharing: we think he’s right! Here is his account. Suleiman, just 8 years old, lived with a disabling illness for 6 years until Mukono Church of […]
On Good Friday, Dr Nick Bass and Edmund Koboah, from the East London NHS Trust, facilitated an online presentation and Q&A session around Covid 19, for staff from some of the health facilities we work with in Uganda. We had invited seven of the hospitals we know to participate, but some had difficulties […]
PCO* Joseph Wakabi, who leads the mental health team at Kagando Hospital, often gets in touch with encouraging photos and information about the clinics they have just held in the more remote villages. However, the Ugandan Government, like many others, last week imposed movement restrictions to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This […]
Joseph Wakabi, a psychiatric clinical officer, and his small team of mental health staff used to hold their monthly outreach clinics at Kitabu and Kyarumba on the same day. The numbers of people coming for treatment have increased, so that now they visit Kitabu on a Monday and Kyarumba on a Thursday. At Kitabu, […]