Improving Mental Health Care in Kenya

Since the training in Mental health is from September to November 2016, we did not have any additional registrars from the Moi University Medical Department of Psychiatry/Mental Health come to the U.S this spring. 

Plans are underway and more funding is needed to support 2 or 3 registrars from MOI in the fall of this year (2017). Commitments are in place from the same faculty from child, adolescent, neurology and geriatrics to supervise and mentor potential registrars that that we had last year and have also arranged a commitment  for the same housing from Miriam hospital and administrative support from Janet O’Connell to facilitate and guide all the logistics and academic preparation for them. This will all be provided pro bono as in years past. 

It is important to appreciate that these specialty area are not available within the primary teaching hospital and/or outlying clinics at Moi University School of Medicine, both because there is no current avenue for children to be seen for psychiatry services and also because there are no faculty who have completed fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry.  These two issues are linked, in that without an avenue for training and experience in the field of child psychiatry, trainees will not be drawn to the field and seek out the additional training required.  This additional training does not exist in Kenya, and therefore trainees must make the decision to leave the area while obtaining that training.  Clearly these are barriers both to training of child oriented professionals and to attracting psychiatrists to the field of child and adolescent psychiatry