By Adekunle Yusuf

With Coronavirus still ravaging many parts of the world, forcing enormous disruptions to social and economic activities worldwide, experts are concerned that mental illnesses have increased in many communities. In Nigeria, the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN) said it is worried that the rate of mental illnesses has risen in leaps and bounds, blaming the global Covid-19 pandemic for the spike in cases.

The APN, which made its concern know during events to commenmorate this year’s World Health Day, said the crisis caused by the viral infection has further pushed mental illness prevalence from 25 to 40 per cent. The APN President, Prof. Taiwo Sheikh, who said “our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” stressed that the high rate of mental illness in the country makes it a greater concern with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing the prevalence upwards.

“The rates of suicides, parasuicides, depression, anxiety disorders, rape and other violent behaviours are very disheartening with substance abuse challenges amongst teaming youth almost getting to a state of real emergencies in our society. Nigeria, a society with many cultural and religious beliefs has misconceptions and misbeliefs about mental illness,” he said.

Among other problems, there are not enough psychiatrists to handle the crisis, with only about 350 psychiatrists in practice in a country with over 200 million people.  There is also acute shortage of psychiatric nurses, clinical psychologists, medical social workers, occupational therapists and other mental health professionals, as many medical professionals leave the country annually in search of greener pastures.

Despite crisis in the subsector, Sheik lamented that mental health issues hardly feature in discussions in the country, with many people believing that it is culturally wrong to discuss it. “We need to raise awareness and dispel stigmas that exist around mental health issues in Nigeria. There is, therefore, more than ever before the need for all stakeholders in health to show greater commitment to mental health issues in our society. The government should implement mental health policies within their domain and truly make it one of the components of primary healthcare at the grassroots level,” he said.

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But at a virtual summit held by APN to commemorate year’s World Mental Health Day, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, said many problems bedeviling mental healthcare delivery will soon be history. According to him, all is set for the upper legislative chamber to allow the National Health Bill under the third reading in November. He explained that the bill is designed to provide the much-needed framework for policy formulation, which will make no room for sharp practices in the management of mental illnesses in the country any more. The bill, which had earlier passed through the second reading, will soon be passed by the Senate. It also provides for the rights of persons with mental disorders to be protected, besides making provisions for various forms of management and treatments for mental health at various levels, starting from primary to secondary and tertiary, Oloriegbe said.

“With the pandemic, we have all seen the consequences on the social and economic and that the coping mechanism by people that have broken down. We have been privileged be to support the processing and passage of a law that will guide and be a policy framework for sustainable and effective activities or actions towards addressing mental health disorders. Before we came in, there has been some attempt there was a law that was in the draft stage.

“We looked at that and did some amendments and presented it. While we were doing that, we saw that the previous effort did not even make attempt to repeal the Lunacy Act, which is the currently existing law in Nigerian legal books as far as mental health is concerned. We are in the final stage and today may be the day we are submitting it back to the Senate for them to schedule it for the third reading. We have finalised every work on it, we have a clean draft and we hope by November, hopefully, when we go back to plenary before the middle of the month, it will be passed by the Senate,” he added.