Lagos opens mental wellness centre for workers

Our Reporter

Lagos State has unveiled its Employee Wellness Centre (LASWELL) to cater for the mental health needs of its workforce for effective service delivery.

Head of Service (HOS) Hakeem Muri-Okunola, at the unveiling in the Folarin Coker Staff Clinic in Alausa, said the LASWELL Centre was structured to enhance the welfare of public servants to function effectively.

Muri-Okunola said the centre, for only public servants, would provide support services through a community-based inter-disciplinary mobile treatment team, comprising case managers, peer support workers, psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists, nurses and vocational specialists.

The HOS noted that the centre would operate call-in services where workers could seek help through designated phone lines two days a week at specified times.

He said: “The centre is structured to enhance the welfare of public servants to function effectively, with the help of professionals, as well as ensure that officers attain satisfactory standards of mental stability as well as emotional/psychological well-being.”

Muri-Okunola urged workers to visit the centre, noting that services were provided by licensed professionals in various disciplines.

“This centre was not established to create fear or stigmatise anyone who may be at risk or may be experiencing prodromal symptoms of illness; acute disorders, remission or individuals who may not necessarily appear physically ill but are challenged by daily routine functioning…and other mental or psychological issues,” he added.

Commissioner for Health Prof. Akin Abayomi, who hailed the HOS for the initiative, noted that the establishment of a functional wellness centre was in line with the administrations’ THEMES agenda.

“In the normal hemisphere, it is almost a normal thing to have a personal counsellor because of the stress of modern age, Internet bombardment of information and expectation from work. This is the beginning of a very important initiative around mental health in the state, thank you head of Service,” he said.