Mental Health Burden in Eswatini and the Need for the Integration of Digital Technologies: An Explanatory Review

Abstract

Mental health is a basic component of health and wellness. The outbreak of COVID-19 uncovered the unpreparedness of the African healthcare system. Eswatini's healthcare system is battling a shortage of skilled mental healthcare professionals and inadequate infrastructure. The existing approach of organizing a face-to-face session or physical therapy without the urgent introduction of digital technologies could cause more havoc to Eswatini's fragile mental healthcare sector in the case of another pandemic or restriction of movement. This study aimed to examine the mental health burden in Eswatini and the ways in which services can be improved using digital technologies despite the low resources. This explanatory study reviews the importance of the integration of digital technologies in the Eswatini mental healthcare system. Literature published between 2019 and 2025 was included in the study. The study such as mental health problems encountered in providing mental using the relevant keyword on mental health services. Eswatini's healthcare system is plagued with shortages of mental health professionals and infrastructural challenges, low knowledge of mental health, financial constraints, and inability to access mental health services. The study highlights ways of improving mental health services, and recommendations were provided to the Government, stakeholders, and policymakers on the need to reform the mental healthcare system.

Received: 17 January 2025 | Revised: 14 April 2025 | Accepted: 16 June 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Author Contribution Statement

Olubunmi Yemisi Fashoto: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Nomalanga Dlamini: Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Mbuso Simelane: Writing – original draft. Dumsani Ndzinisa: Methodology, Visualization.