World Mental Health Day: Psychiatrists Call For More Awareness By Francis Ezediuno

Psychiatrists have hinted that use of alcohol and substance abuse, suicide and depression were major fall outs of not taking care of the mental health of the young ones and especially members of the society.

They also maintained that 14-16% of Nigerians has one case of mental illness or the other which needed to be dealt with.

Dr. Adeoye Oyewole, the National Coordinator of Mental Health NGOs in Nigeria, stated this on FRANK TALK , a radio programme on Rave 91.7 FM as part of the celebration to mark the year 2018 World Mental Health Day with the theme: Young People and Mental Health In A Changing World.

Adeoye noted that over the years, the society had neglected taking care of its mental health while paying more attention on its physical health which was not supposed to be so.

He revealed that the group most prone to mental health issues were the youths due to their vulnerability and changing times.

In his words, “Adolescents and young adults are more prone to mental health issues due to their vulnerability.

“What do we mean by this? Adolescents have to deal with anxiety and stress most of the time and when their families fail to provide a solution to their problems, they fall back on their peers and this is where peer pressures come into the equation.

He also revealed that apart from the neglect from the society, there were also some factors that affect the mental stability of young people in the society.

These factors according to him, were predisposing factors like bad parenting which precedes it, precipitating factors, which is event that has just happened recently and stress of which academic, marital, economic and political issues were part of.

Adeoye noted that ways of dealing with mental health issues include how to handle early treatment and managing mental health, adding that parents should make it a point of duty to watch out for unusual changes in the behavioural patterns of their children and wards.

He thanked the leadership of churches, mosques and other religious organizations for partnering with mental health facilities and NGOs in the area of care for members that have mental issues but maintained that much work still needed to be done in the area of education, enlightenment and advocacy.

He observed that some religious organisations are still going about treating people with mental cases as if they were demon possessed.

In such instances, he disclosed that people would be tied down with chain, starved and flogged.

“These methods will not solve anything. It is violent, barbaric and inhuman. It only suggests one thing and that is the dehumanization of the person and that is why you find people with mental cases and families whose relatives have mental issues continue to keep it a secret until the matter gets out of hand”.

In the same vein, a Mental Behavior Analyst, Dr. Moses Tingan has said that stress is good for the body to strike a balance but could be misused and the use and misuse of it could depend on individuals.

He related that the citizens of the country were already undergoing stress in every area of their lives like finance, economic, marital, and there was no other way of letting up steam so they end up soaking them all in.

“Even in stress management, the hospital is usually the last place to seek help in Nigeria because most of the citizens see religion and religious activities as a way out of their stress and ultimately mental life”.

He connected this behaviour to the fact that society still see any associated cases in mental health as a demonic possession, social stigmatization and many people that are in that category refuse to open up on their condition.

In his words, “society through its action whether spoken or otherwise atimes puts undue pressure on individuals which in turn leads to trauma, made people to lose the capacity to relate with one another”.

Tingan added that society was suffering from collective trauma as a result of insecurity, lack of trust, fall in living standard, false religious beliefs, cultural practices and others.

In the fight to maintain a fair balance between physical and mental health, Dr. Tingan observed that most Nigerians place more emphasis on the former and ignoring the latter.

He called on government to re-engineer the mental health policy of the country.

“Government should be responsible for adopting a mental health policy. It should be put in place and practiced even at the primary health care level.

“A social security safety net should not be lacking in the society and social restructuring should be carried out to improve general health in the country.

“Social restructuring refers to eradicating corruption in the country especially amongst the political class, improving on the minimum wage and seeing to it that pensioners and senior citizens are taken care of”.

World Mental Health Day is annually celebrated on the 10th of October by the World Health Organisation (WHO), a subsidiary of the United Nations Organisation (UNO).