From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government has raised the alarm that mental issue cases are on the rise in Nigeria, just as it is the case across countries of the world, thus calling on all stakeholders to join forces to tackle the challenge.
This was stated by Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, Director of Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, who represented the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of health, Daju Kacholam, at press conference in Abuja, on Tuesday, to commemorate the World Mental Health Day with the theme “mental health is universal human rights”.
He, however, attributed the development to rising case of violence, conflict, socioeconomic factors and several emerging public health issues.
He confirmed that the Federal ministry of health through the National Mental Health Programme, in partnership with development partners, are putting adequate and sustainable to address the concerns.
Minister of health, Prof. Ali Pate, in his remarks, acknowledged the growing challenges of mental health issues, attributing to environmental exposures, genetics and several other factors some of which are correctable.
He encouraged people to look out for their family members and neighbour and pay closer attention and also approach medical facilities in any suspicious case of mental health disorder.
He also encourage corporate organizations, public and private, to also provide opportunity and atmosphere to improve the mental health of their workers, which would, automatically result in improved productivity.
He, however, warned against criminalizing mental health issues, stressing that such cases are the same with ailments like malaria, typhoid and other similar things.
The Minister, thus secured the commitment of several development partners to design programmes that would tackle the cases of mental health issues.
He said: “The First Lady, Mrs. Remi Tinubu, is committed to this course. I had a discussion with her on this subject matter few days ago, and I could see her passion about the issue of mental health. At the end of the conversation, she directed that we take adequate measures or strengthen existing programmes to ensure that people enjoy good mental health.”