A charitable organisation that focuses on suicide prevention is organising a free counselling programme for people who are mentally distressed.
The programme by Befrienders Kenya, will be held at the Kikuyu PCEA Hospital on September 10, a day which coincides with the World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD).
Befrienders Kenya coordinator Anthony Njuguna while addressing journalists in Kikuyu on Wednesday urged Kenyans to accept mental patients and treat them like any other patients.
Njuguna,who said he once lived with the condition for 10 years, noted that providing emotional support and counselling to the patients is key to preventing them from suicidal thoughts and the act itself.
"People who are mentally distressed are just like any other patients. It is hard to know that they are indeed in a problem until they do unexpected things like suicide. We need to de-stigmatise suicide and give the patients the moral support they need," said Njuguna.
He noted that suicide in Kenya is treated like a taboo and therefore people with such thoughts are discriminated instead of being helped to come out of the problem.