EXPERTS at the second international mental health conference of the Asido Foundation have said mental health is a universal human right, adding that even vagrants on the Nigerian streets with treatment can get better and resume their normal lives to contribute to the nation’s development.
Dr Sosunmolu Shoyinka, a clinical associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, stated that mental health conditions disproportionately affect young people, and given that over half of Nigeria’s population is young, ensuring they can assess services is a lot of a challenge.
He added, “That is why efforts like what the Asido Foundation is engaged in are so crucial because there is no health without mental health.”
Dr Jean Wright, the deputy commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Behavioural Health and Intellectual Disability Services, said there is not much difference in the mental health challenges of Nigerian children when compared with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
He stated that the quest should be to reduce stigma and eliminate all misconceptions about mental illnesses, because affected people can and do recover when they receive appropriate support and treatment.
“Arming young people with knowledge, experience and understanding to carry on to the next level is what is going to reduce stigma, increase inclusion, and highlight the fact that people can and do recover from mental illnesses,” Dr Wright added.
Dr Allen Miller, the Director of Global Training at Bech Institution in USA, stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to greater awareness the tremendous mental health challenges people are going through, adding that Nigeria should tap into its tremendous wealth of resources to start making a difference in the mental health of its citizens.
Professor Oye Gureje, Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Research in Mental Health, Neurosciences and Substance Abuse at the University of Ibadan, declared mental health as a crucial part of health, particularly now that Nigeria is passing various stressors, including economic and insecurity.
Gureje, the chairman of the event, stated that although mental illness can affect anybody and there is no reason to stigmatise or discriminate against those affected, Nigeria is not doing enough to ensure that all Nigerians have mental health as a universal human right.
“We are not doing well when it comes to the delivery of adequate mental healthcare because of the inadequacy of specialists’ manpower. The community health workers can be trained to deliver a substantial part of what we need to meet the mental health needs in the country,” Professor Gureje said.
He, however, urged for the speedy implementation of the mental health bill signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari and the policy for mental health care just adopted by the National Council of Health, to bring about positive changes in the care of people living with mental health problems.
The conference, with the theme, ‘Mental Health as a Universal Human Right,’ held at the Centre for Africa Newborn Health and Nutrition in the University College Hospital, Ibadan, also offered free psychological first aid training to 180 tertiary institution students.
Earlier, Dr Jibril Abdulmalik, founder of the Asido Foundation, had stated that psychological first aid training is to help the students to identify their peers with emotional problems and to be able to give first aid psychologically, adding that if there is no improvement, they should then refer to the clinic for further help.
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