“We need to invest more and spend more money than the one percent of the national health budget that goes towards mental health” says Chiwoza Bandawe, a 2020 New Voices Fellow in a recent piece for The Nation. Bandawe, a clinical psychologist, describes the mental health crisis in Malawi as requiring urgent attention.
He specifically notes the need for more qualified personnel since there are currently only five psychiatrists in a country with a population of 20 million.
To learn more about Malawi’s mental health crisis read below.