By Idongesit Ashameri - Uyo
Violence and other socio-economic travails facing Nigeria today have been attributed to many years of neglect of mental health.
The Director, Public Health of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Briget Okoeguale, disclosed this during the commissioning of the implementation of the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (MhGAP) at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Akwa Ibom State.
The programme with the theme, ‘Mental Health Gap Action Programme as a public Health intervention mechanism for peace and socio-economic transformation of communities,’ is expected to, when fully implemented, assist Nigerians to combat the present alarming mental related issues, suspected to be responsible for high level of violence and insecurity in the country.
Represented by Dr Alison Abdullahi of the Mental, Neurological and Substance Use Disorder of the Federal Ministry of Health, Okoeguale assured of the federal government’s preparedness to scale up mental health services delivery in the country, particularly in community setting by ensuring that mental health units are established and strengthened in all the primary healthcare facilities across the country.
“The issue of mental health is really affecting our national security. This is because the use of mind altering substances has led to high level of crime we have in the country. It takes one with mental imbalance to do what Boko Haram is doing in the north as well as what vandals are doing in the south. The police and other security agencies on the other part are also stressed up mentally, so they too also resort to drug abuse to be able to combat these criminal activities,” she said.