Shinning deserving light on mental health

THE last one year has been such a hard time for the entire world, with the coronavirus pandemic distorting and upstaging and upending life as we have known and lived it and imposing enormous costs on virtually all human beings across the world. We have been apprised of the economic and social costs of the pandemic, with the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declining by about 4.5 percent in the year 2020 and many losing their jobs as the pandemic took its toll. We also know about the enormous costs to relationships with forced lockdowns across the world and social distancing rules enforced in many lands. The deaths arising from the pandemic have topped three million and are still counting especially with the capacity of the coronavirus to keep spinning new variants in spite of the extraordinary work of scientists to combat and blunt it with the unprecedented fast invention of vaccines. As the pandemic tension eases somewhat around the world thanks largely to the positive effect of vaccines, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning that it is not yet eureka and that we should not lower our guards yet as the lack of vaccination in most poor and developing countries of the world carries the risk of the virus holding out through such outposts.

One other thing the WHO has been calling attention to is the extensive negative mental effect of the pandemic, especially because this issue of the mental health cost of the pandemic has not received adequate attention by the authorities across the world. A review published in The Lancet states that ‘the separation from loved ones, loss of freedom, boredom, and uncertainty (which have been the hallmarks of the coronavirus pandemic) can cause deterioration in an individual’s mental health status.’ And FranziskaKnolie, Lisa Ronan and Graham K. Murray in their study have reported deep impact of the Covid-19 pandemic ‘on mental health of the general population (with many) showing increased levels of anxiety, stress and depression.’ But two problems have attended the apprehension of this important aspect of the mental health impact of the coronavirus pandemic. One is the continuing worldwide reluctance to accord importance to issues of mental health even as we face and give attention to other health matters. The thinking here is that we do not see enough of the physical manifestation of mental health issues as we see in other health challenges, such that we are wont to leave individual sufferers to continue to cope on their own. And because of the stigma that is attached and associated with mental health ailments, many sufferers are reluctant to own up to  their suffering or to seek prompt medical attention. This especially as there are not even enough mental health experts to attend to complaints, making mental health attention a very expensive proposition. Two, is the further non-attention that mental health issues suffer in poor and developing countries such as Nigeria. In settings where poverty is the order of the day, and caring for day-to-day survival is tortuous and almost unattainable, talking about or acknowledging issues of mental health would be a luxury that would not command general attention in such settings.

We, therefore, have a situation in which we have a bounding need to help raise the consciousness about mental health issues throughout the world, especially as the cost of the continuing neglect of mental health issues would be rising and become enormous for the society to bear. Imagine the fact that many are becoming depressed and undergoing various mental health issues that would not only disturb the rhythm of their lives, but would exact costs in the form of dwindling productivity from them and the society. Not to talk of the implications of mental health issues for those in leadership positions who would end up performing at less than optimal levels without addressing the mental health challenges facing them. The implication is the need of the whole of the society to have a new, open and positive attitude to mental health, such that we could all rise up to confront the problem it is constituting to society and the world. We want to learn from the example of the youngest member of the British Parliament, Nadia Whitmore, who recently came into the open about the need for her to take weeks off from work on the advice of her doctors after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Whitmore reported that she had been battling some persistent mental health issues for months and her attempts to continue to manage them alongside her duties as MP had become very unfeasible. She confessed that it took a great deal of thoughts and courage for her to come out with her diagnosis, saying that ‘despite one in four people experiencing a mental health problem each year, there … (was) still a great deal of shame and stigma,’ such that her hope …(was) that ‘by being open about …(her) own mental health, others would feel able to talk about theirs.’

Evidently, it could not be Nadia Whitmore alone among those in leadership positions in the world who would be suffering from mental health problems. What with many rulers in developing countries like Nigeria behaving in such a way as to call into question their continuing mental health. We would surely have a better world and better societies if we could all strive to learn from Whitmore and work to erase the stigma and shame associated with mental health such that most, if not all of us, would benefit from taking advantage of checking ourselves for mental health issues and seeking appropriate medical attention as at when due. We want to invest societal resources into enlightenment about mental health with a view to changing the existing negative perception of and relationship to it especially in Nigeria.

We need to shine the necessary light on issues of mental health and how they are not different from any other health challenge. The increasing stress in the world and in the Nigerian society especially makes us all susceptible to mental health challenges and we should not shy away from facing that reality and putting in place the structures and enablement that would help us all to appreciate the place of mental health in our overall health standing. The continuing saga of the coronavirus pandemic and the increasing hardship and contracting economy associated with it make it imperative that we recognise the importance of mental health in coping with the changing situation and this should help us all focus the necessary and deserving attention on mental health issues and how to effectively address them going forward.

• Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.

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