THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN NIGERIA

 As humans, the uncertainties of our tomorrow are the things that keep our ambitious minds alive and our enthusiasm in motion. 

We are thought machines, complex ones at that. Our psyche and emotions are woven together in an intricacy that produces a structure which proves to be the core essence of our being by giving us distinct perceptions of our environment, how to effectively interact with it and also giving us hopeful paradigms of our tomorrow.

What then happens when there’s a glitch in this complex structure and we aren’t aware of it or how to deal with it or maybe we are but we’re too embarrassed to seek proper care?

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Research data from IHME’s Global Burden of Disease, suggests that about 13% (971 million) of the world population experience some sort of mental health challenge and Nigeria harbours about 50 million of this population according to WHO.

Nigeria, is home to about 200 million people, so figuratively, about every one in four persons is experiencing or has experienced one mental health challenge or another. 

With this incredibly staggering statistic, one would think that effective measures are being taken by the authorities to improve mental health care affordability and availability in Nigeria but alas, reverse is the issue. 

From mediocre funding, unavailability of adequate mental healthcare facilities to disproportionate mental healthcare providers per citizen ratio, it is obvious the authorities pay little or no mind to the mental health care sector. 

Why is this?

I believe the disregard of the mental healthcare sector by the authorities has a direct association with and is a reflection of the society’s poor knowledge of mental health.

“They’re possessed by an evil spirit,” “She’s/He’s a witch,” “They’re acting strange because they’re experiencing God’s wrath,” said misinformed Nigerians. 

It isn’t news, that for centuries, the Nigerian society has lived and still lives in illiteracy about mental health and mental healthcare.

Mental health in Nigeria is a conversation that has always been treated as light weight or even tossed aside.

Existing, is a populace of young Nigerians who have misinterpreted and are misinformed on the subject matter. A 2017 study, ‘Mental health literacy: what do Nigerian adolescents know about depression?’ proves this and also concludes that in Nigeria, mental health literacy is terribly below par and the country is in drastic need of widespread mental health awareness. 

Also, seeing that mental health challenges, excessive drug abuse and addiction are becoming a looming pandemic amongst the Nigerian youth, the growing need for adequate mental health literacy for the Nigerian youth cannot be overemphasized.

I believe the school of thought in psychology, that views behavior from a sociocultural lens, will agree with me that misconception and misinformation about mental health is birthed from one’s continuous interaction with their environment. 

Growing up in Nigeria, your society (family, religious affiliation, schools, social group, the media, etc) greatly fuels your attitude towards mental health and it’s succeeding mitigation, mental healthcare.

Overtime, misconceptions have paved way for major negative influences on attitude of Nigerians toward the mentally challenged. 

History tells us that in older days, people who were mentally challenged were subjected to ill-treatment like beatings, burnings, mutilation, abandonment, exile, hanging and ostracism because the society believed these acts could help ‘save their afflicted spirits.’ 

The people of the older societies had no idea that the mental health challenges could have been caused by anything that wasn’t remotely spiritual or extraterrestrial. They were acting solely on rudimentary knowledge passed down from their forefathers. 

The current Nigerian societies, although said to be civilized, still portray the same knowledge food chain structure, that the older Nigerian societies displayed on issues regarding mental health. 

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“Crazy, mad, deranged, mentally impaired, mental disorder, mental problem, mental issues, insane, demented, lunatic, disturbed, unstable, maniac,” are examples of words the society uses and should desist from using when referring to the mentally challenged, as such words tend to attach derogatory stereotypes that paint them to be “violent, crazed, angry, dangerous, unreliable” and encourages harmful stigmatisation against the said demographic.

It is rather advisable to say, the individual is experiencing a certain mental health challenge because words like ‘experience and challenge’ give the impression that it can be handled and overcome when proper care is introduced.

Care to know what happens when they are stigmatised?

Stigmatisation and marginalisation of the mentally challenged are major barriers to improving mental health in Nigeria. 

People experiencing mental health challenges are deterred from getting the proper care they need because of the stereotype caused by the paucity of mental health awareness in Nigeria. 

Recently, I greeted a conversation implying that ‘the stigmatisation of the mentally challenged is only common with the older generation and isn’t conventional in the younger generation’ with scepticism, as I believe that the narrative is slightly false. 

I think it is likely, that a portion of Nigeria’s youth are better informed about mental health than generations before them but there are those youths who have their excesses still.

In that light, it is safe to say the power and responsibility to carry both previous and coming generations along, fall on the shoulders of the young Nigerians.

As mentioned in a previous paragraph, It is imperative to note that misinformation and stigmatisation is a generational prevalence, passed on from one generation to the next. 

This thread of stigmatisation is only cut when one generation is equipped with adequate knowledge of mental health and is willing to use it right.

In essence, the Nigerian youth serve as a sharp scissors between the society and the sewn-in stigmatisation of the mentally challenged.

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I have written much about the poor level of mental health literacy in Nigeria and my critique begs the question; What can be done to enhance mental health literacy in Nigeria?

I believe developing practical plans to improve mental health literacy will have a positive impact on the attitude of the public toward the mentally challenged and positive impact on the attitude of the mentally challenged toward themselves.

Such plans can include; age appropriate school programs to educate students at all levels of educational institutions, awareness on billboards, awareness fliers passed out to the public, awareness infomercials on tv and social media platforms, person to person awareness, awareness fliers in the workplace should also be encouraged, awareness in religious settings using the religious leaders, awareness in traditional settings piloted by the traditional rulers, educating the traditional healers that cater to the mentally challenged and programs that cater solely to educating the smaller communities should be put in place as well. These, I’m convinced, will help tackle the problem at both the locale and institutional levels.

When the Nigerian people become more aware of mental health and mental healthcare, they are duly empowered with knowledge. I’m not only referring to the stigmatization.

When the Nigerian society knows better, it is at this point, that they can identify what isn’t right, know what next to do to get adequate care and the mentally challenged or the ‘used to be’ mentally challenged can be better incorporated into the society. 

In conclusion, the Nigerian people need a safe, yet enlightening space to equip them better, so they can confidently and knowledgeably explore and understand their psychological, emotional, social and behavioral wellbeing and that of others in their environment as well.

My Nigerian dream is a society free of the ills of stigma, discrimination and obscurities that surround mental health and mental health care. I am ready and willing to be an active part of mental health literacy in Nigeria, are you?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

CHINWEKENE DANIEL UMEAKA