Nigeria not giving mental health attention it deserves — NHIA Chairman

Chairman of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, said Nigeria is not giving mental health the attention it deserves, with 80 per cent of its resources concentrated solely on the physical aspects of health.

Senator Oloriegbe, who spoke during a courtesy visit by the team for the Africa Centre for Disease Control’s sponsored Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme (MHLAP) course with the Head of the Division of Disease Prevention and Control at the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa, Dr Abdulaziz Mohamed, said mental health should not be relegated to the background because mental health and physical health are intertwined.

According to him, “Some physical manifestations of illnesses may be because of underlying mental health; likewise, some physical illnesses may also lead to a manifestation of a mental perspective.

“There is no health without mental health. It is well known that mental health has a significant effect on human performance, particularly productivity. This affects the economy and security. Some of the security challenges we face may be attributed to underlying mental challenges.

“If somebody has economic deprivation and so on and becomes depressed, such a person may lose his perception or ability to be able to appreciate things and so on, and chronically, we know now the effect of substance abuse is huge in our country.”

Senator Oloriegbe declared the Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme (mhLAP) course novel, as it was intended to prepare its participants for informed advocacy for mental health and service development to meet the specific needs of low- and middle-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Head of the Division of Disease Prevention and Control at the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa, Dr Abdulaziz Mohammed, noted the treatment gap in mental health, with less than 5% of people who required mental health services receiving such.

“We cannot use the clinical method; we need to use public health to solve it. We are currently collaborating with Ibadan to provide mental health advocates for the continent. Therefore, Ibadan is one of the five in the training. Ibadan is in West Africa. So we do five training courses in a year to cover the whole of Africa.”

The mhLAP course director, Dr Bibilola Oladeji, explained that the course is for everybody who is a stakeholder in mental health and, since its commencement, has trained people from 27 countries in Africa.

The Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, in a response, said that mental health conditions affect everyone, including children, and the African CDC’s involvement in leadership training in mental health will ensure that awareness about mental health conditions and their prevention in society is increased.

“A lot of mental health issues can be prevented; many, when identified, can even be treated. Because we have not been paying premium attention to it, it is becoming widespread. Even at our workplace, we need work-life balance for mental wellness,” he said.

READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE