WHO: 20 million Nigerians suffer mental illness

Nigeria

By Abdulrasaaq Kehinde


The House Representatives , during a meeting, declared the statistics of W.H.O. on the mental state of Nigerians.

According to the statistics, over 20,000,000 Nigerians are currently suffering from various degrees of mental illness without the availability of enough psychiatric health care. The statistics shows that 3 out of every 10 Nigerians have a mental illness, and presently, there is no mental health legislation in Nigeria. However, the Nigerian mental health policy is the only framework with access to mental health care, dealing with mental and neurological disorders in Nigeria, and has standardized standards for psychiatric practice. 

The house, however, made it mandatory for the committee on health institutions and health care services to cooperate with the Federal Ministry of Health towards the improvement of the mental health facilities around the country. To this end, the house also informed the committee on health institutions to explore the modalities of cooperating with the stakeholders in the health sector to promote, educate and sensitize Nigerians on mental health.

Uchechuku Nnam Obi, a member of the National Assembly, said that the W. H. O. considers mental health a state of wellbeing in which the individual can cope with the stress of life, work productively and contribute to the community. According to him, mental illness manifests in mood disorder, bipolar disorder, trauma-related disorder, anxiety disorder, old age disorder, or mental pattern that causes significant distress.

The level of depression has increased, which is traceable to multifactorial inter and intrapersonal issues, which leads to suicides in the country, and it requires urgent attention. 

Nigeria has only 130 psychiatrists to treat over 20 million citizens suffering from mental disorders. The house gave 6 weeks to the committee to carry out the assignment and report back for further legislative action.

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