Mrs Olapeju Sofowora is the Chairman of the Olashore International School Alumni (OISA) Foundation, a humanitarian organisation at the vanguard of mental health advocacy in the country. She speaks with TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE and IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the state of mental health in the country in view of this year’s World Mental Health Day.
Based on the series of research that your organization has carried out in the country, what can you say is the current state of mental wellbeing of Nigerians, especially in view of the economic blow they contend with every day?
Let me first of all correct that we have not carried out any research. However, through our reading and the researches of other people, there was a survey carried out last year by Africa Polling Institute (API) and EpiAFRIC. According to the research, about 25 percent of Nigerians are at risk of mental health disorder. That is about 50 million people out of the 200 million population of the country. The survey was carried out last January. Though it is an alarming number, it is where we are. You cannot even be too surprised with the numbers they are giving us, because health without mental health, is no health. We lack strong mental health facilities or culture and awareness in our environment, so it is possible.
How will you say the lack of strong mental health facilities and awareness has affected the mental wellbeing of Nigerians?
I did not say we have no mental health facilities in Nigeria; we have some facilities, but are they enough? No. We do not just have the right culture; I do not want to discountenance that we do not have facilities. We have some, but what is the value and what is the quality of the ones we have? It can be somewhat questionable.
Often, we hear cases of depression and suicide in different parts of the country, what are the factors you think is fueling these things in the country?
For someone to succumb to take his or her own life, it goes beyond the ordinary. It must have been as a result of an undiagnosed disorder that led him or her to that point. Someone, who is well, will not intentionally stand to take something and kill themselves. He must have looked at himself, felt really terrible about it. He knows about himself, feels the society is not supportive, and he has no hope for tomorrow, so of course, what do you think is next? So you really must be extremely unwell to take your own life. We should know that those who take their lives are only led by the impact of their mental health disorder.
It is also a traumatic experience for their families, who feel bad for not identifying the problem early enough. The spectrum of mental health disorder is very wide; we have depression, when quickly identified it is treatable, with the help of therapy without medication, they get out of it. It is not everyone that has mental health issues. We all have mental health; it is just that the spectrum differs; some people cannot handle some stress, while some others can as our threshold differs. If we have poor mental health, and we go into a traumatic incident, it can lead to worsening mental health or mental health disorder.
The spectrum is wide, but not everyone with mental health challenges needs to be on medication. Some might need just therapy and they get better over time. If I already have poor mental health, and I go through a traumatic incident, I might lose stability, without the right support and treatment.
In view of the current situation of mental health in the country, what have been the solutions or the various programs that your organization has been running or has lined up to ease the pressure or at least help Nigerians in the area of their mental wellbeing?
We actually focus on adolescent health because we believe before an adult might have mental health disorder, he must have had issues of poor mental health surfacing from a younger age. There is a correlation between adult mental health disorder that is being diagnosed, and their mental state as adolescents. But we are focusing on adolescent mental health as we believe that if we can intervene at that age bracket, we will be able to build a new generation of resilient young adults, and of course, those young adults go on to have children, and we begin to have a newer generation of more resilient people. So, our target audience is adolescents, and what are we doing?
We are firstly creating awareness; let us begin to talk about this issue like people talk about having malaria or headache. Let us begin to talk about mental health. When something happens to someone, the first thing we should think is how is this person coping? How is their mental health? We have started taking steps; we are hosting our fourth awareness conference and knowledge sharing platform to bring issues closer to parents, caregivers and to schools.
Children are in schools most of the time, about 9 months in a year, and we have school teachers and all in the school. So, because we have our children in the school, we have also been taking the advocacy campaign to school, we are beginning to look at teacher’s mental health in a bid to let them understand it. We are also beginning to talk to the teachers to train them on varying mental health issues. We have also developed a curriculum for mental health training for the teachers, who are the first line of contact for the children since they are with them most of the time all year round. So with this, the awareness culture would have been embedded into them before they go into any classroom.
Secondly, basic mental health training can be taught to our children. Things that they do make fun of can even stigmatise relationships. We will let them understand what mental health is all about, because if someone is ill, a young child would make fun of such a person, but when someone is acting funny, they don’t understand, but rather make fun. That itself further aggravates the condition, so we need to start educating the young ones to understand what mental health is all about.
Another problem, which a lot of people do have, is that even if they identify something is wrong with them, where do they go? We need to start creating information, combining information as to where they can go, referring them to professionals and who they need to see. So on our website, we have created a hub, where literature about mental health, information, and contacts will be posted to equip interested persons with information. So, those are the three things we would be doing: conference, internet sharing and school support structure.
From what you discussed, I would like to know your area of coverage, are they going to be within a particular community or are you taking it to every corner of Nigeria. Secondly, if these adolescents are able to identify their issues, are you as a foundation going to shoulder the cost of treatment if they will require medical attention?
The world is a global village, we are not dealing directly with adolescents; we are dealing with caregivers and anybody looking after children to provide necessary environment and support. We are all about enhancing and promoting mental health, so we are not going to be involved with any treatment; we are just creating awareness, and creating a platform for schools and sources to lead them to anybody looking after children, to ensure that they provide an environment that can promote the mental health of adolescents. In doing so, we are promoting their own personal mental wealth, and that is the information we are trying to pass on.
Also in talking about treatment, even within a school, there are some public health strategies that we deploy to ensure that we maintain our own personal mental health and support the mental health of young people before they become adults. So those public health strategies are not necessarily medication or treatment, but also if and when they do arrive, there are facilities both private and government owned they can go to. When they come back to the school, the school should be able to support them without stigmatising them, even the environment and family, should also be able to support them without stigmatizing them.
I think it is that stigmatisation that is preventing a lot of people from seeking mental help or visiting mental health facilities. You have not told us if this awareness is within a particular community you have in mind especially a local community or it is going beyond a particular community to Nigeria as a whole?
I am talking to you from Lagos, the conference is being held in Lagos. It is a hybrid concept, people can access the conference from anywhere they are, it is not localised. The school is a bit more different, the foundation is different from the school. I am talking to you from OYSG Foundation, the school is in Iloko.
They are a school like every other school that participates, our website can be accessed by anybody, so our programs are open to all and not just for any particular community. We have the mental health teachers’ training sessions online, and we have people logging in from various locations in parts of the country, so it does not really matter where you are. As it is now, any serious organization should always have a virtual presence to enable them to reach out and communicate with their target body.
You know, anything that has to do with mental health or mental wellbeing, has a cultural attitude towards it, and people do not want to discuss it. So for your foundation, what has been your experience reaching out to people to discuss their mental health because some people see it as a personal issue. So how do you deal with it when you go out talking to people?
The first year we were going to have our conference in 2018, somebody came and said, “You want to go public and do this thing? Ah, you will be stigmatized.” I said, “It is when you open your mouth to talk, you will realise a lot of people are suffering in silence.” People quickly identified. Fortunately, instead of the backlash we expected, a lot of people came out to thank us for doing it. It was their opportunity to share experiences and learn from one another. So it is not about somebody, sometimes you think it only affects you, it is when you open your mouth to talk about it.
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