Averagely 450,000,000 people globally suffer from either a mental or behavioral disorder or in some cases both with approximately 1,000,000 people taking their own lives annually and in every four families, at least one member suffers from a form of mental disorder and four of the six leading causes of years lived with disability (YLD) are as a result of neuropsychiatric disorders (WHO 2018). Mental health is an area that has been widely neglected globally. Very little is put into this field in terms of funding, infrastructure and awareness. This is a field where even medical practitioners shy away from, with the number of medical personnel falling way below the recommended standards. Depression is a common mental illness affecting close to 264 million people globally with almost 800,000 lives lost yearly as a result of the illness (WHO 2018). In Kenya 75-85% of the population is not able to receive the mental healthcare they need due to barriers faced such as limited human and/or financial resources and few mental health facilities amongst others (KNCHR 2011). There are less than 100 psychiatrists in the entire country with majority of them concentrated in urban areas. There is also limited availability of services in the community and primary healthcare facilities and as a result mental healthcare is provided from district level upwards only leaving a gap in the provision of services at the lower levels. Currently, the total internet subscription in Kenya stands at 39.3 million (CAK 2020). Availability, reduced costs and ease of access to internet enabled devices has led to this impressive growth in internet subscription which has in turn led to the rapid growth of use of social networking sites in facilitating sociocultural, scholarly, economical and political debates. With the massive growth and uptake of technology and the integration of this technology in various fields including the medical field, services such as telemedicine can be used in bridging these existing gaps in mental healthcare in Kenya where it has not been well utilized yet. This study aimed to bring forth the current situation in the mental healthcare in Kenya as well as provide a means of using existing technology, which in this case is telemedicine, to bridge the gap of access and availability of mental healthcare services. A telepsychiatric prototype system was designed and developed after a review was done on literature and existing models and a preliminary survey carried out on psychiatrists in the country. The literature review and results of v the preliminary survey were used in determining the design of the prototype system. The system is an online web-based chat system that provides a platform for interaction between the clinician and the client. It allows for video calls and chatting between clinician and client and has a note pad where the clinician can take down personal notes. The note pad is not visible to the client. The system also includes the three most commonly used assessment tools according to the preliminary study results and it is able to compute the score of the assessment test, give the level of severity of depression and recommend the action to take. The clinician is also able to access reports to be able to monitor a client’s progress and view scheduled appointments. The prototype system was then tested by experts by availing it to them to interact with and a usability test carried out to determine if the system had indeed met the user needs. The results were analyzed and showed that the prototype system indeed provided a platform where access to mental healthcare can be accorded efficiently. The healthcare providers were able to interact with the clients through chat and video, assess the clients and provide needed treatment remotely, as well as store and retrieve client files easily. The covid-19 pandemic posed a challenge in data collection but it also brought forth the necessity of such a system in delivering mental healthcare services remotely. Further research can be done to utilize the same concept in the treatment of other mental disorders.

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