Title: When to suspect a mental health problem
Course: Non-Communicable Diseases, Emergency Care and Mental Health Part 2 - Ethiopia (Full)

When to suspect a mental health problem

All encounters with people in your community should be taken as an opportunity to assess for the presence of a possible mental disorder. Usually a brief conversation during your house-to-house visits should give you some clue as to whether there might be a problem with mental illness.

In many cases, you will find that there are social factors that are causing the person distress, such as conflict within the family, problems with neighbours, loss (e.g. someone dying), unemployment or financial difficulties. Some people will have experienced serious problems while growing up. Others will be affected by a chronic medical condition or chronic pain that leaves them in a state of constant stress. In a very few cases, you may also find that there is a history of mental disorder in the family.

When circumstances like those described above are present, it is legitimate to suspect a mental disorder. For example, when someone comes to you complaining of persistent headaches, backache and/or abdominal discomfort, and medical investigations have eliminated any physical cause of the problems, you should consider the possibility that these might be symptoms of a mental disorder. A mental disorder is particularly likely when these complaints are combined with difficult social circumstances.