Overcoming Many Barriers, And Wanting To Thrive
September 16, 2021
‘Lucy’, 21, lives with her stepmother in Wakiso district, Kampala, Uganda. She has exhibited intermittent signs of mental illness since her teenage years, which until recently, her family only understood as stubbornness. This lack of understanding of her mental illness had a serious negative impact on her relationships with her family, her local community, and the students and her teachers at her school. After eight years of trying to cope with Lucy at home, her family reached out to Butabika National Mental hospital.
At only 21 Lucy has had a difficult life. She has a child, but was unable to take on the role of nurturing mother. As she got older she increasingly turned aggressive and violent to the extent that she became unmanageable in the community. Lucy is a victim of physical, sexual, and financial abuse. Her first admission to Butabika mental hospital was in April 2021 where she was diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder. After discharge she was returned home by the YouBelong Uganda team under the COVID-19 emergency response program.
Lucy’s goals after discharge from hospital are to do basic activities in her village community (washing clothes, fetching water for sale, and gardening) for income generation, learning more about taking care of her child, getting married, progressing to a fully functional life and making a happy family. The post-discharge support goals of the YouBelong team were; empowering Lucy with knowledge about her mental illness, and daily living skills, building her self-image and self-esteem, as she continues her recovery in the community, empowering her stepmother and her father with knowledge about mental illness, medication adherence, and ways to support Lucy in her recovery, connecting the family and service user to mental health outreach clinics that operate from time to time at the local health centre, and identifying community resources for Lucy to assist her to connect with income generation activity, so as to help the service user have a more meaningful and productive life and live to achieve her life goals. Lucy is a young woman, who wants to go beyond the shocking abuse that she has experienced, manage he mental illness, and belong to her family and local community.