Post by Yordanos Yihun

Lately, our city has been celebrating the opening of advanced, state-of-the-art medical centers. It is incredibly exciting to see this level of modernization and progress in our healthcare system. But… there is a critical, fundamental question we must answer: where do these projects place our community's mental health needs? If we truly want to eliminate the stigma and empower people to seek help without fear, there is one non-negotiable action we must take: we must integrate mental health services into general medical facilities, right alongside every other specialty like internal medicine, pediatrics, and surgery etc. Let’s look at a clear example. In our society, when someone says they are going to 'Amanuel Hospital,' what do people immediately assume? It instantly triggers a heavy label of severe mental illness, doesn't it? For many, walking through those specific gates brings a profound sense of fear and shame. Why? Because we have isolated psychiatric care in its own distant corner. This structural separation is the very fuel that feeds the stigma. To make mental healthcare accessible, we have to normalize it. True modernization isn't just about bringing 2026 AI technology into our diagnostic wings; it is about upgrading our healthcare philosophy. We must stop treating mental health as an isolated afterthought. We can only tear down the whispers, the shame, and the hesitation that stop people from getting life-saving help when we bring psychiatry into the heart of general medicine. No Health Without Mental Health!! 📢 Let's be a voice by sharing/reposting this message! Let us raise our voices to the relevant authorities so that mental health services receive the proper place and attention they deserve in all newly built medical centers. Please repost to spread awareness! 🙏 #MentalHealthMatters #NoHealthWithoutMentalHealth #EthioPsychiatry #AddisAbaba #Share