KIU, Western Campus - May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the KIU Teaching Hospital Psychiatry Head of Department, Dr Benedict Akimana has developed a 14-episode short video series describing the different types of mental illnesses, their presentation, management and prevention.

Dr Akimana releases a single episode every day and the series has so far outed 5 episodes, with nine yet to be released.

According to Dr Akimana, many people are facing mental health challenges worldwide, and it has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The videos are intended to provide much-needed information, tackling various issues to do with mental health.

“I realized many people do not understand mental health, and they have a lot of myths surrounding mental illness, I hope the videos will help demystify it,” Dr Akimana said.

Dr Akimana is a mental health advocate and has been creating mental health awareness through various talks to corporate entities and national TV. However, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has brought the new normal that involves social isolation, there is no better way to widen his outreach span than through the video series.

He has established a YouTube channel to always create awareness about mental health.

 “Please feel free to watch, share and subscribe to the channel for more content,” Dr Akimana said. 

To watch the videos, click here.

Picture credit: researchgate