World Mental Health Day 2019
On Thursday last week, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to observe the World Mental Health Day celebrated on October 10 of every year. The day is set aside by the World Federation of Mental Health to draw the world’s attention to the plight of people with mental health challenges. This year’s theme was on suicide prevention and activities were focused on the role of institutions and individuals in suicide prevention.
However, beyond the theme, the day also served as an opportunity for nations to critically examine their efforts to address major challenges facing those suffering from mental health challenges. Nigeria’s situation in this area is grim. Daily Trust findings have painted a picture of dire situations for people suffering from mental health challenges. According to investigative reports by Daily Trust, Nigeria suffers from serious shortage of mental health workers. This country has less than one psychiatrist to one million people. Findings show that the country has about 200 psychiatrists to cater for a population of nearly 200 million people, even as between 50 million and 60 million Nigerians are believed to be suffering from mental disorder. There are also shortages in other areas of health personnel that handle mental cases.
“This figure, even though it sounds damning, is true and it does not take into account the current brain drain which may be as close to total as possible,’’ Dr Dami Ajayi, a member of West African College of Psychiatry and Associate Fellow of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, said.
According to the findings, most of these health personnel are clustered in one part of the country, leaving patients in other parts of the country to grapple with their situation due to shortage of qualified professionals. The situation is further made worse by the dilapidated infrastructure, which is supposed to provide a conducive environment for the treatment of the patients and enable medical workers to give their optimum.
Many of the old rehabilitation centres that used to serve the population at local government and state levels have either collapsed or are in a total state of disrepair. It is, therefore, not surprising to see mentally challenged persons loitering the streets in our major cities and villages. In recent weeks, the authorities have discovered local “mental health rehab” institutions in Kaduna, Katsina and other places where patients are held in the most dehumanizing conditions. Desperate family members took them there because they had no better options for mental health rehab.
The challenge facing us as a nation is how to reduce cases of mental health, which have a lot to do with economic and social factors as well as living conditions. There is the urgent need for the strengthening of family values. Family support and cohesion have suffered setbacks in recent years due to introduction of technology and pressure to eke a living. In the process the youths are left to cater for themselves and in the process fall into bad company and have no matured person to consult.
Serious efforts must also be made to enlighten the citizens on the handling of mental health issues. Often those suffering from mental disorders are handled with disdain and their treatment is often left to traditionalists, who use superstitious and unscientific methods in diagnosis and treatment,thereby aggravating the situation. Religious and community leaders must take the lead in this campaign as they are closest to the people.
Government should, on its part, regulate the manufacture and use of drugs to stem the tide of abuse among the citizenry. Similarly, it should revitalize rehabilitation centres and strengthen primary health care facilities which serve as starting points for the treatment of mental disorders. This will help in arresting the situation before it deteriorates. There is also an urgent need to take definite measures to train more health workers to handle cases of mental disorder. To continue to have such a high number of people with mental health challenges could imperil our society in many ways.