ABSTRACT
"Background: Kabarole district; situated in western Uganda; and with a population of 863;263; has 44 health units. Despite the high number of health units in the district; only 4of women aged 15-49 years utilise family services available to them; 13 of deliveries take place in the health units and only 46 of children under 5 years of age use out-patient facilities. Mental illnesses account for 0.05-0.09of children under 5 years of age use out-patient facilities. Mental illnesses account for 0.05-0.09 of total out-patient attendances. Objective : This study was carried out to determine the magnitude of mental health problems as perceived by the communities in Kabarole district. Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional one counducted in four out of eight counties in the district. The countries; sub-countries; parishes and households involved in the study were selected using multi-stage simple random sampling procedure. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the household heads of 96 households from each of the counties. Qualitative data was collected ofrom one focus group discussion involving both males and females from each of 42 parishes. Further information was gathered from 27 key informants purposely selected from the district health department and the community. Results: the community's perceiced problems included human diseases; poverty; crop diseases; unprotected water sources; lack of market for agricultural produce and icreased rate of crimes. Mental illnesses ranked six among the top ten human diseases; mentioned by or 8.6of total out-patient attendances of respondents. Only 47.2 of respondents recognised mental illnesses to be a community problem; and 25.8 of hosueholds reported having had a patient with the condition in the previous year. There are no services for the mentally ill in the community and affected persons are either secluded from the mainstream of societal life; or are neglected and left to the ""mercy of God"". Conclusion: Mental illness is perhaps emerging as a community problem. Recommendations: The community needs a well designed programme of education on mental health problems. The development of community mental health programme in Kabarole District will need to be integrated with other programmes targeting high priority community defined problems"