MentorTalks: Mental Health Matters
Noella Luka, 2019 Professional Fellowship Program ExchangeAlumni, mental health advocate, and award-winning documentary filmmaker, joined MentorTalks to talk about her personal mental health journey, how she’s working to destigmatize mental health treatment in Kenya, and to share her tips on supporting family and friends living with mental illness.
According to a landmark report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2022, one in eight people live with a mental health condition. In Kenya, an estimated three million people live with intellectual and mental disabilities, according to United Nations figures. At the same time, mentally disabled people – often poor – receive little support from the government and often face widespread stigma.
In her documentary, What’s Eating My Mind, Noella traces her personal journey with mental health, from being first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, to helping to bring awareness to and break down the stigma around mental health across the region.
In this episode, Noella takes us through her experiences and how she has helped herself and her family better cope with her lifelong challenge. She also talks about how to help yourself if you’re dealing with mental illness, as well as how she’s working with stakeholders in the community to destigmatize this “invisible illness” and better support those coping with a mental health challenge.
“In looking at mental health from the African perspective, we tie mental illness to African traditional norms,” she says.
“But these are things that have been perpetuated from generation to generation, and we need to adopt other ways in which to deal with mental wellness.”
Tune in now to hear from Noella!
Speaker Bio
Noella Luka is a Nairobi-based, award-winning documentary filmmaker, mental health advocate, and exchange alumna of the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment (PFP-IDE). Her work has been screened in Africa, Europe, and North America. She has produced films about mental health, disability, and climate change and led a PFP-IDE project about mental health storytelling in Kenya. She is the Team Lead of Mental Voices Africa, a mental health support group that empowers people with mental illnesses to share their stories. This sparked her current project, “What’s Eating My Mind” - a personal film that captures the lived realities of mental illness within Kenyan families. The project is a co-production between LBX Africa and STEPS, and is available on the BBC Africa YouTubePage.