By Eugene Wanekeya

60-year-old Patrick and 51-year-old Roseline, a married couple residing in Kimama, Bungoma County, pose for a photo in their farm, where they engage in small scale farming of coffee, maize, beans and bananas. Roseline, who has had a mental illness for the past eight years, is among 35 Service Users benefiting from mental health outreach services being offered at Chesikaki Dispensary, Cheptais Sub County, Bungoma County courtesy of an initiative by Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya that is funded by ECOM Foundation. The initiative aims at increasing access to mental health services and supporting community re-integration for persons with mental illnesses and epilepsy. Photo by BNBR

We sat down with this couple, that has been married for over 31 years and are proud parents of 9 children – 5 girls and 4 boys – where they were happy to share their inspiring story of how they stayed together in spite of their lives getting spun around by mental illness.

“I first fell ill in 2016,” recalls Roseline. “I started experiencing memory losses and would often find myself walking aimlessly in the streets, singing and talking to myself,” she states.

At this point, our curiosity is piqued, as we are interested in knowing how her husband responded to this situation. As is a typical cultural practice in this part of Kenya, a husband will promptly marry a second wife when the first is deemed not to be able to fully execute her responsibilities.

“I am happy with the support my husband gave me because as opposed to abandoning me, he actually was very helpful,” she informs us.

This is why I chose to stay

Patrick joins in on the conversation. “Up until the time she fell ill, we had been married for about 23 years. During this period, she had been a perfect wife, we had children and a good family. Therefore, it never occurred to me to abandon her at her time of need. We had too much invested in our family,” he states.

“Initially, it was a challenge as I didn’t know what to do. Some community members advised us to try prayers, which we did for a while, but we didn’t see any positive changes in her,” he continues.

This is a typical response in most rural communities in Kenya as society attributes unexplained phenomenon to the supernatural. People will often turn to religious leaders, spiritual or traditional healers as their first option.

“When prayers did not work, we decided to seek for medical attention,” reveals Patrick. “We visited our local dispensary here at Chesikaki where the clinicians ruled out cerebral malaria which they initially suspected to have been the cause of my wife’s strange behaviour,” he adds.

“Upon ruling out cerebral malaria, the clinicians decided to treat the symptoms Roseline was experiencing by prescribing antipsychotic medication targeted at keeping her sedated,” Patrick informs us. “They informed us that they could not heal her, but they could prescribe medication to calm her mood and enable her to function,” he states.

This journey has not been easy

Patrick informs us that it is at this point that he chose to seek for specialised psychiatry care for his wife as the clinicians in this dispensary were not professionals in psychiatry, but they had observed that his wife may be experiencing symptoms of a mental illness. They were therefore advised to visit Bungoma County Referral Hospital. It is here that Roseline was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and psychotropic medication to manage the illness prescribed.

“Whereas we were happy that we finally got to understand what Roseline was going through and that we had a treatment plan, it was an expensive undertaking,” Patrick states. “The treatment plan entailed making monthly visits to Bungoma Referral for review and medication, which cost me about KES4000 monthly on transport and medication,” he reveals.

For Roseline, the treatment journey also presented some tough challenges.

“The first three years of taking my prescribed medication were difficult as it took quite a while for my body to adjust to the side effects,” she reveals. “I would often wake up weak and dizzy, unable to carryout any tasks in my house,” she continues.

Out of a desire to get better, Roseline says she did not lose hope, and trusted the advice and encouragement from the clinicians who assured her that things would get better.

“It’s actually in my sixth year of taking my medication that I finally stopped experiencing the negative side effects and was able to resume undertaking my household tasks,” she informs us.

Services have been brought closer

Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya in collaboration with the County Government of Bungoma with funding from the ECOM foundation, were able to support mental health outreach services aimed at increasing access to mental health services and supporting community re-integration for persons with mental illnesses and epilepsy. This outreach entails facilitating psychiatric personnel to visit community health facilities monthly, to offer mental health services. This helps address the challenge of lack of personnel at these community facilities able to diagnose and treat mental health conditions. Roseline is among over 65 service users visiting Chesikaki and Nasusi dispensaries where these outreaches take place.

“Today, we no longer have to go all the way to Bungoma Referral for treatment, as mental health outreach services are now available at Chesikaki Dispensary which is just a few meters from our home,” Patrick states. “This means that I no longer incur transportation costs, I only spend money on medication which I often have to buy from local pharmacies due to regular stockouts at the dispensary,” he continues.

Our outlook for the future

“I am hopeful that one day my wife will fully recover,” Patrick declares with optimism. “Before she fell ill, we were partners in all our ventures and, she helped me out a lot. However, since she fell ill, she has been unable physically, to offer the assistance she used to therefore all the burden has fallen on me,” he says.

“Yes, today she is helping out since we are managing her condition well, but she gets exhausted pretty fast therefore her energy isn’t as it was in the past. I therefore look forward to a time when she will be back to her old self,” he continues.

Patrick and Roseline today are a shining example in their community that mental health conditions can be managed provided that the affected individual receives the right care and support.

“Our community has been receptive to advise, as our experience dealing with mental illness has made us a bit of an authority on the subject and we have been able to advise two other families to take their children with suspected mental illness to hospital to seek for treatment,” states Patrick.

“All in all, we are happy that at no point did this community shun us because of this illness. They continue to be a good support system. My friends still visit me often to enquire about my health and how I am generally fairing on,” Roseline informs us.

Both Patrick and Roseline are optimistic that all will be well moving into the future.