New Stories & Data from Uganda for Mental Health Awareness Month

(KAMPALA, Uganda) May 9, 2025 – High levels of stress and anxiety are common worldwide among refugees and internally displaced people, given so many of their needs are unmet and the level of trauma they experience. With more than 120 million people forcibly displaced around the world, the associated mental health crisis among this population is enormous and growing. To adequately meet their needs and provide care, mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS) are critical aspects of the healing journey.

Medical Teams International is committed to providing and facilitating compassionate MHPSS alongside its essential, life-saving medical care. For more than 45 years, Medical Teams services have included access to MHPSS while providing the quality health care that human dignity requires.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Medical Teams is highlighting our MHPSS response and achievements in Uganda where services are provided by Medical Teams, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) and TPO-Uganda with funding from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM). Last month, Medical Teams communications staff member, Leah Kabi Alikobakwoyo, visited Palorinya and Rwamwanja refugee settlements, where there have been high numbers of suicide incidents in recent years. Interviews with several people who experienced severe mental health issues found that refugees emerge stronger when provided with access to MHPSS services through support from international and local partner organizations serving adults and children in the settlements.

Clementine, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, suffered the unimaginable when her husband was killed as they fled the conflict in the country. Clementine and her daughter, Geteme, settled in Uganda as refugees. Without income, Clementine could no longer afford school fees for her daughter. In deep grief and despair, Geteme tried to take her own life. Through community networks, Clementine was connected to Medical Teams International, who referred Geteme to TPO-Uganda for urgent counseling. Medical Teams also linked Clementine and her daughter to partners who provided educational support. Slowly, Geteme began to heal.

“Many people here are silently suffering,” said Yasinta Kyalisiima, a psychiatric clinical officer with TPO-Uganda, a MHPSS organization working in partnership with Medical Teams in Palorinya settlement. “They carry heavy responsibilities, especially women. When their partners are violent, absent, or uninvolved, it becomes too much.”

According to UNHCR’s Uganda Suicide Dashboard, 190 suicide attempts were recorded in 2024, with 59 deaths and 18 repeat attempts, most of them women. The main causes cited were family conflict, financial hardship, unmet basic needs, and domestic violence. However, with Medical Teams’ generous funding from BPRM, suicide rates among refugees are starting to decrease due to interventions from Medical Teams, HI, and TPO-Uganda.

“Medical Teams is committed to caring for the whole person, and we believe that long-term healing and peace of mind for refugees and internally displaced people comes from this approach,” said Robert Businge, Medical Teams BPRM Project Coordinator in Uganda. “Partnerships are vital to the effectiveness of this work, especially with recent foreign aid cuts and budget constraints, and we will continue to prioritize our MHPSS life-saving response.”

About Medical Teams International

Founded in 1979, Medical Teams International provides life-saving medical care for people in crisis, such as survivors of natural disasters and refugees. We care for the whole person— physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Daring to love like Jesus, we serve all people—regardless of religion, nationality, sex or race. Learn more at medicalteams.org and on social media using @medicalteams.

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