By Lanre Adesanya
As Nigeria continued to record increase in suicide, especially in recent time,
mental health experts have attributed the crisis to alleged failures on part of
the government, financial institutions and corporate organisations to provide
the needed support in addressing the menace.
This is even as parents and religious leaders are advised against neglecting
their roles of monitoring, mentoring and counselling of youths, who are largely
prone to such acts.
The experts, who spoke recently at an event Sensitization Campaign on Mental
Health Issues tagged “Speak Out: Say No to Drug Addiction, Depression and
Suicide”, held in Lagos, bemoaned the government for the dearth of
employment, economic hardship and poor infrastructures
which are mitigating factors that could lead to suicide.
At an event organised by Centre for Corrections and Human Development in
conjunction with MSCI, the Executive Director, Mrs Obioma Agoziem, who
described mental health issues as a rampaging virus that is spreading like wild
fire, berated government and financial institutions for not providing the
needed support for victims of drug addiction, urging them to speak out so that
they could get help.
MSCI is a Japanese oorganization which provides global supports for environment,
social and governance issues.
According to Agoziem, while the government fails to provide suitable environment
for the public, as Nigeria now currently ranked Africa’s most depressed country
(WHO’s National Depression Report, 2019), many financial institutions and
corporate organisations do not see any interest or gains to support campaigns
against drug abuse and other social vices.
The CCHD Executive Director noted that on many accounts, as an NGO, when she
approached corporate organisations on the need to support efforts towards
addressing the menace, many of the firms see no reason to throw their weight
behind such campaign.
The Executive Director also lampooned many parents following their disposition
to work at the expense of care giving through constant attention paid on the
children, just as she noted that religious leaders have a role to play in
admonishing and counselling youth members in places of worship in order to
discourage them of peer pressure, which is a major factor to drug addiction and
a causative to
depression and suicides.
“Substance abuse is ravaging our youths like wild fire and the government,
banks and other corporate bodies have a role to play in the campaign against
this menace,” the Executive Director said in her
speech.
“Also our religious leaders and parents are not left out. They must provide
the needed support for youths and children so that they can speak out because
from the encounters we have had many people
including youths, we found out that victims hardly seek for help early enough.
“There is always that procrastination, that bottling up, that unwillingness
to seek for intervention and sometimes, even the fears of being stigmatized
hold back so many victims.”
In his remark, MSCI founder Mr Suzuki Yuichi said he would provide adequate
support through funds and other means towards efforts to contain the crisis.
He said the issue was not only limited to Nigeria but also noted in civilized
countries. He however added that the advanced countries have better ways of
addressing the crisis.
While noting that Japan was formerly infamous for almost 20,000 deaths annually
resulting from mental health related issues, Yuichi stressed that the
government however took practical measures to address the situation, an
approach which drastically reduced the figure.
“Mental health is a global problem and Nigeria is not an exception,” Yuichi
stated.
“Japan used to have an alarm rate of mental health related deaths but conscious
efforts were taken to reduce the situation. A lot of advocacy, awareness
campaignsm funds must go into it to achieve
significant result in addressing the issue.
“Nigeria is a great country and the people are good. What I witnessed since
I arrived in Lagos is contrary to what I’ve been hearing about Nigeria,
which over the years had shaped by view about this country
and the people. But now I have a true picture of Nigeria.
“I promise to support the course against drug addictions, depression and
suicide. I saw vigour, vitality and agility in kids in Lagos. We as parents,
government, organizations, should support these kids so
that they won’t be dying of depression.
In her address, Dr Nayah Egegbara of the Federal Psychiatric Hospital Yaba,
berated situations where victims seek treatments for mental health in church
instead of going to professionals.
She also fumed at situations where parents deliberately conceal the status of
their children with mental health challenge.
Egegbara said: “We need to speak out; parents must speak out about the condition
of their children who has mental health problem. And must always seek
professionals to handle the case rather than visiting traditional people or
clerics for prayers and rituals.”
In her submission, Oyinkansola Alabi of Emotion City stated that “there is
no health without mental and emotional health”.
She maintained that if the mental and emotional health are not in good conditions,
nothing can be achieved by humans.
Alabi, who averred that suicide does not just occur but a gradual
process, identified three stages that potentially provoke the act to include
cluelessness; hopelessness/helplessness, and depressions which ultimately
advance to suicide.
She exlained: “At cluelessness, the victims does not even know he or she
needs help. At hopelessness and helplessness, the victim thinks he or she
can’t get help and his or her condition has gone beyond redress. And this
subsequently leads the victim into depression, which eventually may result to
suicide.”
Alabi further charged the government to include mental health as a subject in
the school curriculum.
