called it just the most fantastic story evidence of what was possible not just in sierra leone but across the global southwhen mattia jusu qualified as a doctor and was given his assignment by the health ministry in 2019 he was horrified to learn that he had been posted to kissy i was expecting a very short stay he said with a laugh but a few months into coming i started to change my mindsome patients were calmer and more engaged with each passing day and he began to see the power that mental health care could offer people who had been trapped in treatable but untreated illness for years he is on track to be certified as the first domestically trained psychiatrist in two more yearsacross the continent from sierra leone in ethiopia there is a clue to both what the residency program may one day produce and a reminder of how long it may take there for the past 18 years addis ababa university has run a program to train psychiatrists the first group graduated in 2006 seven of them for a country of 115 million people the program has grown steadily since then so that there are now psychiatrists in most of ethiopias major hospitals a onceunthinkable level of coverage said dr dawit wondimagegn a professor of psychiatry who until recently served as director of the universitys college of health sciences still that is one psychiatrist per million peopleour fundamental challenge is that psychiatric disorders and the need for access to mental health care in general really is not a priority for health policy in ethiopia or anywhere in africa dr wondimagegn said stigma is pernicious and it feeds the idea that there is nothing to be done to help a patient who suffers from psychosis or depressionethiopias model includes psychiatric education for nurses and community health workers who will be the main points of interaction with the health system in rural areas the who advocates for building mental health into primary care rather than training specialists and building dedicated clinicsthe newest construction project at kissy is a rehabilitation center which will bring addiction treatment to sierra leone for the first timewe have such high rates of substance abuse have we ever asked ourselves why its happening mused dr elizabeth allieu the resident who set up the childrens clinic all the child soldiers from the war they have children now these untreated people traumatized and not healed having children what do you think will happenkissy once turned children away now dr allieus clinic has helped put programming about mental health in children on radio shows and a team is starting school outreachwe can do a lot here dr allieu said a lot