From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, has lamented the low level of mental health literacy in the country, advocating for enhanced education and sensitisation among Nigerians to improve their mental well-being.
The Minister made the remarks in Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti State while delivering the keynote address at the grand finale of 6th anniversary of Afe Babalola University Multi-System Hospital (AMSH), with the theme” Achieving Universal Health Coverage Through Mental Health Service Integration.”
Pate who was represented by the National Coordinator for National Mental Health Programme at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Tunde Ojo, appealed for improved funding, affordable and accessible quality medication as parts of ways to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“Mental health affects everyone and when people talk about mental health what comes to mind is may be that person that is walking on the street naked, uncared for and so on but the truth is that we have to be talking about mental well-being.
“Everything about mental health is not about disease but what can we do to enhance our mental health well-being, promote mental health and also ensure that people do not come down with mental health conditions.
“There is very low level of mental health literacy in the country, people have wrong notions about what are the causes of mental health condition and where they can get treatment. It is not just about disease but what we can do to enhance our mental health.
I believe that will go a long way in improving mental health of the people.”
He noted that mental health condition arises from combination of different factors, such as risk factors, biological factors, psychological factors, social factors among others.
” It is a combination of different factors risk factors, biological factors, psychological factors, social factors. So, if people have people with mental health condition in their family, they can have the increased chance of developing mental health condition.”
Speaking further, Ojo said ” We need the right conversations rather than just talking about mad people, which is what people normally talk about
The truth is that for every person that you see walking naked on the street uncared for and there are quite a number of people that are having mental health condition that are getting well treated and they are living their normal lives.
“So, what people see out there in the communities which describes what mental health is, is actually people that have been neglected and for everyone you see on the street, there is this popular saying, that once he gets to the street,it is a point of no return. The truth is that these people if they had received care on time, they could live a normal life and even at that point, if they still get access to quality care, they can still have their lives back.”
Ojo noted that there is no single factor responsible for mental health but a combination of different factors.
‘ There is no single factor that is responsible for mental health. It is a combination of different factors such as risk factors, biological factors, psychological factors, social factors among others.
” So, if people have people with mental health condition in their family, they can have the increased chance of developing mental health condition ,but that does not mean that they will develop it, whole lot of factors come together.”
He revealed that the federal government is doing quite a lot and has been coming up with various policies to address mental health needs of Nigerians.
” We have a national mental health policy that everyone including state actors, state government can take up on. It is a document that has something for everybody to be able to address mental health of Nigerians. We also have the national suicide prevention strategic framework.
“All of us know that, there have been reports of rising suicide cases. But what can we do as a country or as organisation to be able to prevent suicide because it can be prevented, we have that document.
“We all know before now that there is a Lunacy Act that talks about the right of people with mental health. This is a very archaic one. Again, the federal government in 2022 passed the National Mental Health Act which speaks against the violation of rights of people with mental health condition.
“We know and hear about the abuse of the rights of people. People go to religious homes, traditional settings in trying to get care but what happens is that they violate their rights , we see people being beaten, chained and some female victims go for such treatment, only to come home with pregnancies. These are no solutions. These are human beings that have their rights. They have their rights to dignity and we should be talking about how do we protect their dignify? How do we ensure that their rights are not violated?
” Again, the legal framework, the policy framework, government has made that already available. It is for us as stakeholders to promote mental health.”
According to him, government has made the legal and policy frameworks available, it is now left for the stakeholders to promote mental health..
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Kolawole Ogundipe, recalled that the six years old hospital has continued to experience unprecedented growth and achieved incredible feats, while offering cutting-edge services in all aspects of medicine.
The CMD noted that the facility offers quality, affordable and accessible health care, coupled with modern equipment to treat patients of different ailments.
In her speech, the Vice Chancellor, Afe Babalola University, Ado- Ekiti (ABUAD), Prof Smaranda Olarinde, said apart from providing medical services, the hospital also engages in researches and trainings of both undergraduates medical and allied students. She noted that the university medical school, which started 12 years ago has graduated six sets of medical students