A mental health initiative has opened dialogue on the potential of empowering nurses at primary care level to prescribe anti-depressants at primary health care level.
The Friendship Bench plus trial and Brushstrokes of Well-being project seeks to empower nurses to prescribe antidepressants a move that could revolutionise mental health care accessibility across the country.
Speaking at the Friendship Bench plus trial and Brushstrokes of Well-being project inception meeting in Harare, coordinator Dr. Rukudzo Mwamuka said the project seeks to empower nurses to prescribe anti-depressants.
“Friendship Bench Trial plus is a research project that will look at whether it is effective and feasible for nurses at Primary Care facilities to be prescribing anti-depressants which are essential medication for the treatment of depression.
“We are going to be doing this process by engaging different community members and key stakeholders and this includes people who have lived experiences and have gone through depression,” said Dr. Mwamuka
The meeting was attended by nurses, representatives from the Medical Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) and the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
The meeting marked the beginning of a national conversation on how to align policy and practice to improve mental health outcomes.
“One of the big questions that we have seen in our prior work is that the nurses are ready to do this work in primary care and they think it is acceptable to them, they think it is feasible. But there are rules and regulations about how medications such as anti-depressants can be prescribed which are not yet aligned and these are prohibitive for the nurses to start this work,” said Dr. Mwamuka
She added “It is my hope that with this inception meeting we are able to dialogue about how these policies can be aligned and ensure that the nurses are going to the work of helping people with depression at primary care and with any fear of getting punitive measures on their end.”
