Hairdressers in West Africa stand out as providers of mental health therapy to clients, apart from being equipped with vocational skills.
Joseline de Lima from Lomé, Togo, has emphasised that her hairdresser, Tele da Silveira, has provided a safe space to share her struggles.
Ms. da Silveira is just one of the many hairdressers in Togo who has received mental health training. West and Central African cities are some of the critical regions where mental health is lacking and is primarily a fallacy.
The work of the Bluemind Foundation
Bluemind Foundation trains African hairdressers recognized as a crucial demographic by founder Marie-Alix de Putter. Hairdressers symbolize African identity and serve as safe spaces for women.
Ms. de Putter exemplifies, “Society expects them to be beautiful, and hair often comes first… We go where women are.”
Over 150 hairdressers have been honoured as ‘Mental health ambassadors’. So far, Lomé, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon have received training. Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal are the next on the training agenda.
The training lasts 3 days and covers asking open-ended questions, identifying nonverbal signs of distress, and avoiding gossip and bad advice.
Togo has only 5 psychiatrists for a population of 8 million. Families resort to harsh traditional remedies like isolation and shackling due to a lack of care.
Daméga Wouenkourama, one of Togo’s few psychiatrists, says, “Mental health remains a foreign concept to most people, including our leaders and our fellow doctors.”
The state of mental health in Africa
Many African countries urgently need better mental health as healthcare capacity is only at 0.1 per 100,000 in the WHO African Region. Suicide rates in the same region are also higher than the global average, estimated at 11.2 per 100,000 population in 2019.
African governments spend an average of US$0.46 per capita on mental health, while low-income countries are recommended to spend at least US$2 per capita.
Mental health has become increasingly important in Africa due to the increase in violent conflicts, harsh climate and economic crises combined with high drug use and mass displacement of people.
While the hairdressers receive training to assist customers, Ms da Silveira, Josephine de Lima’s hairdresser and therapist, highlighted, “I can listen and do some talking, but there comes a point where I can’t help anymore…Why does it feel like everyone suffers from mental health issues?”
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