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The Nigerian government has highlighted ways mental health issues affect societal growth and well-being, noting that mentally incapacitated young people cannot impact positively on society.
The Deputy Director, Dept of Youth Health, Mental and Psychosocial Development, Ministry of Youth Development, Chukwuma Ugwoke noted this in Abuja, on Wednesday at a Policy Dialogue on Youth and Teen Mental Wellness.
He said the government has no choice but to pay serious attention to its young population, as “the youths cannot support or contribute positively to national development with poor mental health.
“A mentally deranged youth, or a youth that has mental issues cannot behave well in any society. It would be rare. And some of these issues are more fundamental than we can see. But we are galvanizing, meeting people to see that these issues are handled and mitigated adequately.
“They say health is wealth. Now the contribution of the ministry will be to ensure that this policy, this meeting, leads to a policy development that will be taken to the National Assembly.
“Some mental health challenge, as you know, is not when a person is fully naked in a marketplace. No, there are various categories of these mental health issues.
“Drug addictions can lead to mental health issues, and there are fundamental issues that lead to those drug addictions as well the biological aspect some in our society, people see someone that’s mentally deranged, as if he or she was cursed or spiritual and all that. No. The World Health Organization made it in their record that one out of every eight persons on Earth has a mental health issue.
“One out of seven adolescents has a mental health issue from the teen ages in schools.
“So for us to stop this kind of aggression which is observed in our society, we need to take it down to the teens in schools and young people to understand what is mental health.
“They should understand that mental issue is not madness, but somebody who has some issues that can even lead some young people committing suicide.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Director, Drug Prevention and Sensitization, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Also speaking, Ndubuisi Agabus in his presentation said, “The issue of mental health, disorder is fueled by drug or substance abuse. When people have problem of mental health, they are looking for different solutions.
“Some will resort to substance abuse to get out of the problem, not knowing that they are worsening the situation. From substance abuse, it will now lead to what they call dependence on drugs, that is addiction.
“Drug addiction at this stage, the problem now has escalated beyond mental health, beyond anxiety, beyond stress or depression, it cannot escalate to something else that needs another expert, cure or another intervention.
“Again, at this stage that individual now will be talking about rehabilitation. They are taking the individual, bringing him back to track again. This is a simple issue that was caused by, maybe stress, anxiety, which resulted to mental health now looking for solution, he now goes into drugs.
“Drugs now cause more harm than what actually a psychiatrist can solve or a counselor, meaning that we need more people to be trained because we have few psychiatrists handling the issue of mental health, meaning that we need more people to be trained, because from what we records, we have about 250 psychiatrists handling over 80% of people suffering from mental health.
So there is a need for more experts to trend on mental health disorder, which we are lacking.
“There are other ways we can handle the issue of mental health. Some people, I think sports can be used to to make most of people that are alienated know they’re not alone. When people are alienated they think a lot of evil things.
Rosemary Ochiwu, Founder and Executive Director, Initiative for Self Esteem Education and Advocacy, said there is the need to move from awareness to action, from isolated efforts to structured systems, and from intention to policy.
“We often speak about mental health as though it is distant-something that affects ‘other people.’ But the truth is much closer. Mental health lives in our homes, our schools, our workplaces. It shapes how young people learn, relate, and see themselves.”
FG, experts decry impact of mental health issues in Nigeria’s development
