The Instiute of Medical and Health Law (IMHL) on Monday in Abuja held their 2023 conference with call on government to take responsive action toward curbing and improving the mental health of its citizens
The Director-General of the Institute, Prof Uwakwe Abugu made this call in his welcome address delivered during the conference.
According to him, addressing the mental wellbeing is necessaey for a balanced mental health in a fractured socio-plitical environment like Nigeria adding that millon of Nigerians are grappling with staggering mental health crises occasioned by stress, illness, poverty, crises and loneliness among other factors.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a whopping 20 percent of Nigerians or around 40 Million people, are affected by mental illness and in the midst of these alarming rate statistics, conversation relating to mental health and people suffering from various degrees of mental illness or disorder without psychiatric health care in Nigeria are underrated”
The worst he added, is the fact that many Nigeria youths suffer from one or two mental health issues that are either being mistaken as “clout or termed “spiritually problems”. The most common of them are depressing, anxiety and to crown it all they cannot even talk about it because they fear stigimatization from the society.
The Director General further noted that the stigimatization is further aggreviated by parents who do not understand the gravity of what their children go through which in turns affects their relationship. Most parents see this as no big deal or worse as a spiritual issues and they would rather take the child to a church to get deliverance than try to listen to what the child is going through.
“Therefore government must develop ways and channels to address their plight especially providing care and support to what they are going through without passing judgement on the affected people.
“we believe that a lot of Nigerians need orientation on mental health issues because each year, the suicide rate keeps adding up and most of them are young people with promising future and all they ever needed was a conversation like the one we are having today and a little of faith and trust.
He however added that the Institute will continue to do his best in helping Governmnet proffer solutions towards growing and improving the well being of Nigerians and extension the country.
The theme of the conference is ” Maintaining Optimal Mental Health In a Distressed Socio-Political Economy”
The event also feature the induction of student, associates, full members, associate fellows, and fellows of the Institute of Medical and Health in addition to confernment of Honorary Fellowship on Prof Mike Ozekome and Dr. Charles Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi, Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association, FCT Chapter for their immense contributions in their various fields.
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