Friday, April 24, 2015

Blog #10: What challanges face Somalia next?

As this blog is about health, with intention to educate myself and anyone who reads it, I find myself writing once again on BAD health, as opposed to how good a certain people are doing. The article I found and am writing on is in concern to Somalia, and how much behind the nation truly is in respects to becoming a safe place to live. When talking about the demographics of developing countries we discussed the infant mortality rates, and under-five mortality rates. Somalia has great rates of both of these. There has been numerous wars in the country, that have led to no political governance has had any chance of establishing a public health resource. When comparing it to developing nations, it is hard to even call it developing. A report by UNDP suggests that the attempts to meet the Millennium Development Goals is way off track, reaching only one out of eight with the expected deadline to be this June. This nation has no hope for bettering the health of its people and sustaining it, without the help of international organizations such as the World Health Organization. However, there are hopes that the disease and resources could improve under a new promise. The flip side of this issue is that since the war in the country has decreased there is now a rising number of suicide, homicide, and conflict related injury being accredited to mental illness. The thought is that most of these mental illness cases are related to PTSD. In the country, mental illness is definitely not looked at in the same light as it is in America. It is somewhat a taboo, with patients typically isolated, chained or kept in extreme situations. Due to a lack of clinics, social understanding, and medications to help the illnesses the nation is falling under a new wave of disruptive warfare, this one being psychological. With so many social issues it is a big challenge to try and manage this as well, yet with the help of outside sources hopefully one day Somalia might develop.

Alex Rogers, 4/24/15, 4:40 pm
http://www.coastweek.com/3816-Somalia-disease-burden-and-spiral-of-silence-on-mental-illness.htm

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