It is impossible to ignore the bad news about the economy. The reports on slumping stock markets, unemployment, corruption and dismal business forecasts that Kenyans have become accustomed to not only have an adverse impact on people’s pockets, but also their psyche.

Many people are falling victim to mental illnesses like stress, anxiety and depression, with some easing their fears with alcohol and drugs, while others turn to religion, defined by German philosopher Karl Marx as the opium of the masses.

Indeed, there is a correlation between a bad economy and the two businesses of alcohol and religion. For instance, does it not surprise you that the more the economy dips, the more new drinking joints and centres of worship spring up? Little effort has been made to understand the overall impact on people and the economy that these two age-old balms of the human soul have.

With alcohol, just as with religion, the customer seeks and finds a promise of hope for a better tomorrow. The bad news is that most times, people wake up to the realisation that this promise of hope was unreal.

A 2012 study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Journal found that the number of employees admitted in Kenya’s mental institutions because of alcohol and religion-related stress and depression is increasing by 5 per cent yearly.

Isn’t it time the Jubilee government rejuvenated the country’s human capital by innovating and developing vibrant socioeconomic alternatives to alcohol and false religion?

It is not enough to fire Government officials every time methanol kills and blinds hundreds of stressed individuals. This is a reactive approach, which is largely conservative, and by this measure, a non-growth factor.

A proactive approach tends to look at the potential of transforming idle human capital into a vibrant economic tool. For this, regulatory bodies like Nacada would need to be adequately funded and fully backed by political goodwill.

A regulatory body to check religious excesses that border on fraud would need to be set up through an Act of Parliament. But this may never happen because of the unlimited political capital that can be derived from an unregulated religious atmosphere.

However, for our purposes, let us focus on the connection between mental illnesses such as stress, anxiety and depression, and the economy.

ALARMING IGNORANCE

The ignorance surrounding mental illnesses is alarming. A report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) gives the damning statistic that if you go to a general practitioner suffering from mental illness, you have only a 50 per cent chance of getting the right diagnosis.

Mental health problems can range from fairly mild problems, such as sleep deprivation and fatigue, to common disorders like anxiety and depression, and severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar.

The connection between mental health issues and economics has not been keenly studied in Kenya. In the UK, where this problem has been extensively studied, mental health problems cost employers £30 billion (Sh4.5 trillion) a year in lost production, recruitment and absences.

Research done in 2003 on the cost of mental and behavioural disorders in Kenya shows that in the financial year 1998/1999, the economy lost approximately $13.4 million (Sh1.2 billion at current exchange rates) due to the institutionalisation of patients with mental and behavioural disorders (MBD).

Over the same period, the total economic cost attributable to the 5,678 MBD admissions at various Kenyan hospitals contributed approximately 10 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure of the ministry of Health.

The stigma associated with mental health problems has not only affected the way people view the illnesses, but also influenced Government practice.

For instance, the health service is broadly structured in six levels: the national referral (level 6); provincial (county) general hospitals (level 5); district (sub-county) general hospitals (level 4); health centres (level 3); dispensaries (level 2); and volunteer community health workers (level 1).

However, at the sub-county and county levels, psychiatric care is conducted by psychiatric nurses whose knowledge in treatment and diagnosis needs to be supplemented and enhanced by clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. Unfortunately, they are few, and there is no deliberate Government policy to train and recruit this segment of mental health specialists who seem to be confined to private practice or the three national referral hospitals.

Ng'ang'a Gicumbi writer is a researcher in mental health.