Mental Health Law Overdue for Review

800,000 commit suicide yearly due to depression

Medical experts yesterday called for a review of laws and policies on mental health. They also want better care for depressed persons.

They spoke in Lagos at the presentation of the book: Shadows in the mirror: the many faces of depression, written by Dr. Vivian Ikem.

A professor of psychiatry, Joseph Adeyemi, who chaired the event, said no fewer than 800,000 people commit suicides yearly due to depression, yet policies on mental challenges remain archaic.

He said the Mental Health Act, enacted in the 1900s, was last reviewed in 1959 despite medical improvements made over the years.

“Our laws should keep up with current situations, but we have remained static, the way we were in 1959,” he said.

Adeyemi described the book as “spectacular”, praising the author for “coming to help” those in the field of psychiatry. According to him, it is difficult to get depression patients to accept the fact of their illnesses.

Ikem, he said, was one of the

few who are bold enough to declare that problems publicly, adding that the book is “easily readable and understandable.”

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, represented by General Manager, Lagos Television, Deji Balogun, said the issue of mental has not received the attention it deserves.

According to him, the symptoms of depression could easily be observed, yet people turn a blind eye to the plight of victims, with attendant costs on the economy.

“A depressed person cannot be product. Rather the victim constitutes a drain on the resources of the community when help, especially professional help, is not forthcoming.

“This publication by Dr Vivian Ikem is a timely wake-up call to government and everybody in the society that a smile, a word of encouragement and understanding would go a long way in curtailing the destructive effect of depression in our society,” Ambode said.

All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu described the author as a woman of “excellent intellect” and “unmatchable lucidity”.

Represented by Mr Sunday Dare, Tinubu said depression was a global problem, with 400 million people suffering from it, 12 per cent (48million) of which are Nigerians.

Calling the publication “a terrific book,” Tinubu said he has a dream that someday, the author would be celebrated across the country.

The former Lagos State governor said for the author, a Ph.D holder in Chemical Engineering, to write so convincingly about a field of medicine shows her “intellectual discipline, curiosity and intellectual responsibility.”

Recommending the book to everyone, he said: “We all have a role to play as family and as friends in helping those who suffer from depression.”