ACCORDING to World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well, work well, and contribute to their community.
WHO estimates show that about 25-30 percent of Nigerians suffer from mental illness and less than 10 percent of this population have access to professional assistance while about three percent of the government’s budget on health goes to mental health.
From WHO’s statistics, 20 percent of Nigerians, or around 40 million people, are affected by mental illness with depression and anxiety disorders constituting the most prevalent cases.
Available record shows that in 2017, about seven million Nigerians (3.9 percent of the population) suffered depressive disorders, while 4.9 million Nigerians (2.7 percent) had anxiety disorders. It was also on record that substance abuse disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and personality disorders accounted for the common manifestation of mental health issues in Nigeria.
Added to these are post-traumatic stress disorder related illnesses (PTSD) and other trauma-induced disorders particularly among persons exposed to conflicts, violence, or natural disasters.
This is a worrisome situation that needs urgent measures to address the rising cases of mental disorder.
More worrisome is the fact that shortage of mental health professionals has compounded Nigeria’s huge mental illness challenges. Indeed, only about 200 psychiatrists and 1000 psychiatric nurses currently serve over 200 million people in Nigeria.
The Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba, Lagos, for instance, currently has only 33 resident doctors and 22 consultants that cater for more than 5,000 patients that are treated annually. This is grossly below the global standard practice of one psychiatric doctor to 10,000 patients. Similarly, there is acute shortage of clinical psychologists in the country,who provide vital services for managing behavioural problems, particularly depression and anxiety.
Today, there are about 319 licensed clinical psychologists that are registered with the Nigerian Association of Clinical Psychologists (NACP) which is also grossly inadequate for Nigeria’s increasing population .
Brain drain also has affected adequate care and bid to tackle growing psychiatric cases in the country. According to the President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), Professor TaiwoObindo, two-thirds of well-trained and certified psychiatric doctors leave the country annually.
Cultural barriers , superstition and stigma surrounding mental health also contribute to the inability to tame psychiatric cases in Nigeria.
For instance, many believe that a mental health disorder is a curse from God or punishment for the victim’s wrongdoing and more often than not, seek treatment from traditional and supernatural healers, on the erroneous view of supernatural causation.
This has resulted in about 70 percent of mental health cases in the country being treated through unorthodox means.
Poor funding for mental health care with just Federal Government budget of three percent dedicated to the sector leaves much to be desired, while health insurance schemes by many employers of labour hardly include adequate mental health benefitsfor employees.
Ironically, it is estimated that mental health problems account for 7.1 percent of workplace truancy and $4.5 billion in work-related productivity losses.
Mental health is a serious issue that should attract government and organized private sectors’ priority of place if we must tame the current unpleasant narrative.
There is the need for increased funding of the health sector generally and the mental health unit in particular and integration of mental health into primary healthcare among others.
This will encourage regular training, availability of human and material resources as well as adequate access to mental health treatment.
With increasing threats of causative factors of mental illness such as stress and anxiety from unemployment, underemployment, insecurity, lack social amenities, shelter, food and other basic needs, particularly the vulnerable category that constitutes majority of our population, there is the need to arrest these issues before they snowballed into clear mental problems.
A healthy nation is a wealthy nation, and as the most populous black country in the world, Nigeria should not lag behind in addressing health needs of the citizens generally and mental health on particular. Now is the time to act!
