By Chioma Obinna
The Medical Director of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, FNPH, Yaba, Dr Olugbenga Owoeye has raised the alarm that the downturn in the country’s economy has adversely affected the protective factors in mental health.
Olugbenga who spoke at the 6th Annual Research Conference Book of Abstracts themed: “Socio-economic Crisis & mental Health” by the Hospital listed the protective factors in mental health to include; social support, educational level, employment status, income, availability of mental health facilities and services, housing, transportation, and environmental conditions among others.
Owoeye said the development has led to a significant and unprecedented worsening of the population’s mental health.
He said: “Several studies have associated worsening socio-economic factors with increased prevalence of mental disorders and improvement in socio-economic indices with enhanced mental health of the populace. The Scandinavian countries are known to have better socio-economic indices and more improved mental health status than most countries in the world.”
He noted that the socio-economic problems also interfere with the delivery of quality mental health services as funding for mental health institutions is dwindling while the real income of most mental health professionals has plummeted leading to an increased exodus of qualified healthcare professionals.
According to him, there is also little or no health insurance coverage for the most vulnerable leading to reduced access to mental healthcare for most Nigerians and restricted treatment options for the poor.
He stressed the need for health professionals to understand the various socio-economic factors impeding mental health service delivery and develop an evidence-based approach to ameliorating these conditions to improve the mental health status of the population as well as reduce the prevalence of mental health disorders to the barest minimum.
Owoeye said this year’s annual scientific conference promised to be interesting as scholars from different parts of the country would contribute to the discussion.
Delivering his lecture entitled: “The Socio-economic Crisis and Mental Health in Nigeria”, Provost, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Professor Abiodun Adewuya, who stated that approximately 25-30 per cent of Nigerians have a mental health problem said socio-economic determinants of mental health are grouped into three groups. While Group A comprises homelessness; food insecurity; transportation insecurity; and poor access to healthcare, Group B include; adverse early life experiences; discrimination; and expression of violence and Group C includes; low education; unemployment/underemployment; poverty and social inequalities.
Adewuya lamented that all the groups contribute to decrease options and poor choices as well as physiological stress response and psychological stress which in turn leads to mental health problems.
On possible solutions, he urged health workers attending to patients to differentiate sadness from clinical depression, promote mental illness prevention and mental health, facilitate resilience and promote positive mental health as well as promote investment in mental health.
He also stressed that the policymakers should pay attention to the welfare provision of workers, tackle unemployment by introducing active labour market support programmes, and family support programmes, control alcohol prices and availability and the need to look into debt relief programmes.
Adewuya who also encouraged Nigerians to seek treatment for mental illness called for responsible media coverage of suicide and other mental health problems and the strengthening of social capital.