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Somali Mental Health – Report on COVID-19 Virus Effect On Mental Health

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During COVID-19

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Everyone reacts differently to stressful situations such as an infectious disease outbreak. When the COVID 19 epidemic broke in many regions of Somalia, many people started fearing for their life. People started isolating in their homes, which can affect on their mental health and well-being.

This is due to number of different reasons. One of the reasons was that most Somali people were not aware this new disease and how it spreads among people. Health workers in different parts of Somali regions were infected by COVID-19 specially those who interacted with COVID-19 patients. As someone who works in the field of mental health and psychological support, I have dealt with many patients who were highly impacted by the fear of COVID-19 virus.

Somali Health authorities have used many different  avenues to raise and spread the awareness associated with COVID-19 virus and its impact on human health. Some of the awareness information had negative impact and created fear among Somali society. One of the methods used to spread the awareness included using social media which have created a negative impact. Here I would like to share with you a case which i have dealt during this period.

60 years old women, living in the rural area of Somalia. She first heard the radio and auto-phone call ring tones about COVID-19 virus, and she kept worrying getting infected. She decided to self-isolate and decided not to interact with other people. This has affected her eating habits and developed bad insomnia and fear related with COVID-19 virus. This mental health issue related with fear of COVID-19 has worsened until she developed hallucination. She became suspicious of everyone and assumed that they are going to infect her with COVID-19 virus. She was admitted to our mental health hospital. We assessed here situation and we gave her appropriate treatment. After sometime she positively responded to the treatment. Her  mental health issues were caused by fear of COVID-19 due to negative impact caused by the awareness campaign.