By Alieu Ceesay
Health Minister Dr. Ahamd Lamin Samateh has confirmed that a comprehensive draft Mental Health Bill is complete and now awaits Cabinet approval before being presented to the National Assembly. This development could modernize the country’s outdated mental health legal framework.
The announcement was made during a recent question-and-answer session in Parliament, in response to an oral question from the National Assembly Member for the Janjanbureh Constituency. Dr. Samateh explained that a contracted legal firm drafted the legislation, which has undergone internal review and is ready for the next critical step.
“The draft Mental Health Bill has been submitted by the contracted legal firm and has been reviewed for presentation for approval by the cabinet and subsequent presentation to this august assembly,” the minister told lawmakers.
While welcoming progress on the legislative front, the minister underscored that mental health remains a pressing national priority, complicated by deep-rooted stigma and limited resources.
“The issue of mental health is a big concern to the ministry and the government as a whole and for society in general,” he said. “Mental health issues are not very easy to deal with, especially with the stigma associated with mental illness. So it takes a whole-of-society approach in conjunction with government to ensure that mental health issues come to the fore.”
The Gambia continues to rely almost entirely on the Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Hospital, the country’s sole dedicated mental health facility. Dr. Samateh acknowledged the urgent need for infrastructure upgrades but highlighted recent gains in human resources.
“We have one mental hospital dedicated to mental health services, which is the Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Hospital. By itself, we know it needs to be upgraded, but the service quality has improved in the sense that the calibre of mental health professionals we have there is improved,” he stated. The hospital now benefits from a professor of psychiatry, consultants, and a Gambian specialist with advanced membership training, all of whom also contribute to training medical students and junior doctors.
The minister emphasized nationwide efforts to strengthen early identification and management of mental disorders through health-worker training, improved drug supply chains, and better diagnosis to prevent misdiagnosis and worsening conditions. He noted that psychiatric medicine shortages have historically triggered relapses, but assured lawmakers that adequate consignments are expected soon.
In partnership with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, construction of a new rehabilitation centre for substance-use disorders is progressing.
Despite these commitments, official figures presented to the Assembly exposed chronic under-spending on mental health services. Between 2019 and 2024, actual expenditure frequently fell far below budgeted amounts—reaching zero in 2020, 2022, and 2024—while 2025 showed marked improvement with D3.3 million spent out of D3.7 million allocated. The 2026 budget line stands at D2.941 million.
Dr. Samateh outlined plans to decentralize services, deploying specialists to regional hospitals so that many cases can receive timely community-based care rather than requiring admission to the capital.
The forthcoming bill, once enacted, is expected to replace colonial-era legislation and enshrine modern, rights-based protections—provided sufficient funding follows to turn policy into tangible improvements on the ground.
