Challenges in Multidisciplinary team work in the mental health unit at Windhoek Central Hospital in Namibia

Abstract

Namibia has only one mental health unit with a full Multidisciplinary team which caters for the whole country. The unit is regarded as a ward or department as it is attached to the main referral hospital of Namibia, Windhoek Central Hospital in the capital city of Namibia. Namibia has a total of fourteen regions with different tribes (more than eleven).It is also a multilingual country with more than sixteen different languages. The goal of the study was to explore and describe the challenges of the multi-disciplinary team in the mental health unit service delivery at Windhoek Central Hospital. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. It was exploratory and applied. It utilized a case study design. Purposive sampling was used to obtain the study’s sample size. A sample size of twelve (12) multi-disciplinary team members was selected. Each discipline namely, social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses, doctors and psychologists was represented by two members of the chosen sample. The findings show the gravity of the work that needs to be done at the mental health unit. The challenges faced have existed for years and the Management of the mental health unit has not addressed them. The multidisciplinary team is facing lots of challenges. The Act that is currently in use, Act No. 18 of 1973, is very old. . The Ministry of Health and Social Services (2005: 3) in Namibia states that government must ensure good and adequate service delivery reforms for the health of the nation. However, the government is not doing much for the mental health unit. The study concludes that the mental health multidisciplinary team needs to be heard and their challenges addressed for the team to deliver quality service to patients. The challenges included a heavy workload and a critical shortage of mental health trained staff. Even the ones not trained are not enough. There is always a shortage of medicine and the equipment is inadequate. The infrastructure itself is not conducive for the whole country and office space is not enough. The unit does not have its own budget hence many programs cannot be conducted because of lack of funds. Recommendations include; development of policies and guidelines on the multidisciplinary team, decentralization of mental health services, training the mental health staff, a separate budget from the main hospital one and improving the infrastructure.