By Abdullah Yusuf
Nigeria, a country otherwise known as the Giant of Africa having mental health issues is quite saddening but not surprising. The rate of it has slowly but steadily grown over the decade and should be approached sensitively to avoid the spread of it wider than it already is.
With a view to quelling the growing mental health issues, cognitive health care was introduced for the maintenance of those who suffer from or are vulnerable to any form of mental illnesses such as: Intergenerational traumas, anxiety disorder and substantial abuse of drugs e.t.c.
The president of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (A P N), Taiwo Obindo said “mental health care is in a sorry state.”
This could be linked to the more than 60 million Nigerians suffering from various mental illnesses.
Nigeria is in a delicate crisis where cost of treatment serves as a barrier to effective mental health care. A treatment which should be near free has eaten deep into the pockets of average Nigerians that they would have to choose between feeding and treatment with most choosing the former.
This is not to mention the superstitious beliefs of Nigerians which hinders them from treating mental health defects, blaming it on spiritual entities.
In addition to this, it has been observed that hospital admission is now guaranteed only after a deposit of a huge amount of money to carry out their treatment on patients. It has become usual to request 50% of the fixed price of any form of illnesses before they can begin a start-up treatment to patients.
This is illustrated in the instance of a man whose brain got damaged as a result of a car accident. The left hemisphere of his brain i.e (wernicke’s area) is being affected in which he might eventually lose speech comprehension; If he is not attended to within the range of 2 to 3 days. A case like this which needs urgent treatment, imagine there’s no 50% payment readily available.
And research revealed that a neurosurgery operation costs about one million naira; so to be pragmatic, it is beyond the financial capabilities of an average nigerian.
Shortage of psychiatrists as a barrier to effective mental health in Nigeria
Absolutely, there is significant negligence of mental health care services in Nigeria. With an estimated population of over 200 million people and about 250 psychiatrists currently practicing in the West African countries, a statistic according to the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (A P N).
Compared to the number of mentally ill people in Nigeria,the number of psychiatrists is on the decrease. This is coupled with the high number of young Nigeria medical doctors migrating to developed countries in quest for greener pastures as a result of low remuneration in Nigeria compared to other developed countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Canada. Obviously, many Nigeria psychiatrists have abandoned the country to practice in a developed country that offers them much better incentives.
Poor Mental Health Literacy
Unanimously, illiteracy is not only restricted to those who do not go to school, but, as it involves the inability to possess requisite knowledge of a particular discourse.
Hence, a cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out among undergraduate students across almost all universities in Nigeria, to assess their understanding of schizophrenia and help seeking behavior, and the result of the survey revealed poor mental health literacy among students, which is attributed to inadequate mental health promotion in Nigeria.
Furthermore, Nigeria is in dire need of competent psychiatrists as well the government’s intervention which entails a lot of benefits and opportunities to conduct research; to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the country and to set aside effective prevention and treatment measures.
Presently, the adoption of a health systems approach, to understanding and focusing intervention efforts for improving health care services, is currently gaining popularity. As it has paved the way for an avenue to innovative learning and creativity which can also contribute to the progress of the country. According to some experts, creative ventures help to fight anxiety, because they activate the parts of your brain that possess emotions. Music and arts for example, help to calm brain activity and allow individuals to feel a sense of emotional harmony.
Undoubtedly, mental health in Nigeria has reached a phase where we couldn’t have ever visualized. It is a process that produces intellectual individuals in society. They are individuals who are vulnerable to all forms of mental illnesses. They opt to meet up to the standard of their goals and engage themselves in sensitive issues concerning a certain discourse.
Tackling the mental health issues in Nigeria would hopefully pave the way for great opportunities to come and revive the mental health status of those who are subjected to the ravaging mental health defects that have come to gulp down the society or country at large!