Don seeks FG’s commitment to tackling nation’s pschychiatric health challenges

Prof. Taiwo Sheikh, President, Association of Psychiatrists of Nigeria (APN), on Tuesday in Lagos urged the Federal Government to be more committed to addressing the nation’s psychiatric health needs and challenges.

Sheikh, also of the Psychiatry Department, College of Medical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, gave the advice when he spoke with the Newsmen.

He said it had become necessary for the government to increase its allocation, investments and funding to mental health in view of the increasing rate of psychiatric health cases.

He said the increased allocation of funding also became necessary in the face of a huge treatment gap for psychiatric health conditions in the country.

He lamented that it was only 3 per cent of the budgetary allocation to the health sector that was provided for psychiatric health in Nigeria.

According to him, the government needs to show more commitment by enacting and enforcing policies that would enhance psychiatric health service delivery.

Sheikh said the government should intensify efforts to ensure the passage of the Mental Health Bill presently before the National Assembly.

He said the passage of the Bill had become imperative to provide direction for a coherent response to psychiatric health and substance abuse victims while regulating the activities of psychiatric health services and institutions.

He said hospitals and community health centres focused on psychiatric health had no extant laws backing them.

According to him, the Bill seeks to address the issue of social discrimination against people suffering from mentally related ailments.

He described the law operating in the country as an “archaic lunacy law’’, which he said had been in use since the early 1980s.

“This Mental Health Bill in Nigeria has been at the National Assembly for several years without passage into law though it has gone through third reading.

COVID-19: Biggest public health threat – NGO

“Unless this Bill is passed into law like it was done in some other countries, Nigeria’s psychiatric health patients will continue to suffer social stigma.

“In many of our cities today, we see young and old people with mental health challenges running around the streets constituting public nuisance.

“This is because the government has not come out with a policy to stop such persons and reintegrate them in society. I believe this bill will give them some hope and a second chance in life,’’ he said.

The psychiatrist said like other patients suffering from various ailments, people with a psychiatric ailment should be shown empathy and not discriminated against.

Sheikh added that research had revealed that 31 per cent of diseases affecting people in the world were mentally and psychologically related.