Somalia is located in east Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden on the north and Indian Ocean, east of Ethiopia. Its ethnic groups include the African Bantu and Arab. Culturally the Somali peoples are nomads and semi nomads. They rigidly follow the clan based traditional behaviours.
There is no counselling practises available unless one spread awareness to the community. However, the Habeb public mental health hospital has collaborated with the several well-known local broadcasting groups to raise community awareness about mental disorders. Prepared mental health lessons are released to inform the audience on various issues such as ‘mental disorders are treatable’, ‘mental health is part of general health’ and ‘chaining of mental ill people is prohibited’. An attempt is made to try to persuade family members to bring mental disorder patients to the hospital. In addition, visits are made to public schools to educate staff on mental health issues.
For now, there are three mental hospitals. One is a public/private mental health inpatient hospital to help psychiatric emergency cases, the second one is a rehabilitation treatment centre located in Mogadishu, and the third hospital is a mental hospital established in the year 2008 in the central Somalia.