The Federal Ministry of Health, has revealed that the treatment gap in mental health cases is about 90 per cent in Nigeria.
According to The PUNCH, this was stated by the National Coordinator of the National Mental Health Programme at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Tunde Ojo, at a press briefing in commemoration of the 2023 World Suicide Prevention Day in Abuja, with the theme “Creating Hope Through Action.”
World Suicide Prevention Day is annually observed on September 10th with the purpose of increasing awareness regarding the preventability of suicide.
Based on the information provided by the coordinator, it has been observed that the number of federal neuropsychiatry hospitals in the country has experienced a growth from eight to ten within the past two years. This development indicates that Nigeria has made notable advancements in its efforts to tackle suicide prevention and enhance the mental well-being of its populace.
“It is not just that they are not enough, but the truth is that that belongs to the past. The mental health treatment gap in Nigeria is like 90 per cent. It means that for every 10 people who need mental health services, only one of them is able to get it because with the few services that are available and with the few human resources, the japa syndrome, all of them are in the cities, but the major part of our population are in the rural areas.
“Our approach going forward is the integration of mental health into existing programmes, and the primary health care level because that is closest to the people, and that is a public health and that is destigmatising it and taking it to the last mile, and that is what I believe is the direction that the government of the country is taking,” he said.
