Health Worker Diaries: Psychiatrist

Voice 1:
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight program. I’m Joshua Leo.

Voice 2:
And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1:
In April 2006, people around the world observed World Health Day. For this day, the World Health Organization, the WHO, also released the World Health Report for 2006. The report said that at that time, fifty-seven [57] countries experienced a severe shortage of health workers. There were not enough health workers in those countries.

Voice 2:
So the WHO began a new project. They wanted to celebrate health workers. And they wanted to show people around the world what health workers can do. Their project was called “The Health Worker Diaries.” The WHO invited health workers from around the world to write to them. They wanted the health workers to write about one particular day in their job. Doctor Alain Maxime Mouanga is one health worker who answered.

Voice 1:
Doctor Mouanga is a psychiatrist - a doctor for the mind. Psychiatrists help people with mental sicknesses. But they also help people to understand their own emotions.

Voice 2:
Mental health is important for every person. Different experiences and events in life can negatively influence a person’s mental health. Working life, family life, and a person’s part in the community are all places people can feel pressure on their mental health. A person may feel sad, angry, or out of control. These normal influences can be even worse when they involve stress or extreme mental pressure.

Voice 1:
Doctor Mouanga works in the Republic of the Congo. Over two point five million [2,500,000] people live in this country. But, the WHO says he is the only psychiatrist there based in a hospital.

Voice 2:
The Republic of the Congo has experienced trouble in the past. In 1997 there was a civil war. Groups of people from the same country fought against each other. The war created ethnic and political conflict. Many people had to leave their homes. And they have not been able to return to them. All these experiences continue to influence Doctor Mouanga’s patients. So, he must think about all these events when talking to them.

Voice 1:
Doctor Mouanga describes one day in his experience as a psychiatrist in the Republic of the Congo.

Voice 3:
“A man came to see me. He could not sleep at night. He had disabling headaches, pains in his head. He was tired. I asked him about his past. Eight [8] years ago, during the civil war, his house was burned down, just as he was getting ready to retire. It had taken him thirty [30] years of hard work to build that house... Now he is renting a small apartment under terrible conditions.”

“I asked him if he could see any relationship with what happened in 1997 and his current problems. He made a joke of it.

“‘That happened to everyone. Why should I protest?’ he asked.

“‘Yes, that happened to many people, but what happened was terrible for you,’ I told him. Like most of the patients who seek psychiatric care in the Congo, he is suffering from depression.

“Here in the Congo, people sometimes experience the most terrible shame. But they struggle on as they live with major depression. It is amazing. They look for an answer. They go from church to church and from doctor to doctor. They want to understand why they do not feel well.