Transcripts For ALJAZ The Stream 2019 Ep 120 20240714

Ministry of Health Advice also is to help those in need scaff so Many Mental Health advocates of take an unconventional approach is to tackling the crisis joining us to discuss this in a geria delta apne a or i know hes a social Competence Research psychologist with the name a foundation and they goes how shes executive director and founder of the she writes woman which aims to raise awareness about Mental Illness by giving a voice to those struggling in my duty im dr abraham hes a medical director at the federal Psychiatric Hospital in delivery it is one of only 8 public Mental Health facilities in the entire country and in london dr victor hugo hes the founder of the mentally aware Nigerian Institute of on money its good to have you everybody thanks for joining us in the stream victim going to do some of that is not very often on t. V. In nigeria and that is for somebody to talk about that Mental Health can you tell us just very briefly how you tackled your Mental Health challenge what happened to you how did you solve it. You know i dont think. I dont pick up so good. How are built with it being more like. When i was pregnant the question i had a lot of support from rick perry or mitt romney or. Went very long in my record. Journey and ive got the. Only reason why we got a community of people would have been written about you know our own kind of each other if we were looking to add a at the extent of Mental Health challenges in nigeria how would you explain the landscape what is it like a street like. I think a lot of the im concerned about the Mental Health challenges of lunch or as a result of the crisis in the northeast to put things in perspective over 7000000 people have been affected in 3 straight to the northeastern nigeria out of the 7000000 people 1. 76 people have been displaced from their essential homes nice people from teachers to farmers to government walkers and fisherman lost everything that are around to this people suffering to really massive charm and will occasionally secondly since and such as depression and anxiety and stress of a lot of them have very little life left and its however the crisis in one here is not only in the northeast suburb conflicts all across the country the conflict in the most west understand this and we saw space conflict for the family had a crisis in the middle belts this crisis and the mindset of there is also a resource of cultism and so thoughts and so these conflicts and use that Mental Health challenges are a serious problem in the country together with the economic situation. And i hear what youre saying there and yet there are a few i handful i will say there are not that many there are a few people online who are not quite convinced that the numbers are adding up or that the level of people wanting to seek Mental Health care or dealing with Mental Illness are what the government says they are so i wanted to share this from keith who says our government officials are known for cooking up numbers did the numbers come from a personal observation from a village or legitimate survey if so how was the survey conducted what region was focused on she goes on to say in a country where Mental Health is viewed as a taboo topic im curious to know who they talk to i do graphs from the question Mental Health is a very important topic thats needed to be tackled with a sense of urgency but these numbers just dont add up for me and the number she is talking about is the 3 in 10 nigerians who reportedly suffer from Mental Health issues dr ibrahim can you talk to us about what we know about the landscape what we know about those numbers. Thank you very much for the opportunity i think. That the number hes. Over estimated i. E. I share it with a con son but theres a Mental Health issue in the not based particularly would display spent over over 2000000 people by the insurgency and particularly with the destruction of infrastructure as both a primary and secondary labels in both state and youll be state and of course in some parts of a demo stage and as growth deficiency of Mental Health facilities in nigeria the only Mental Health hospital that is on where the federal government is the 3rd annual psychiatry close to 20 m. A degree that kept us full but 20000000 people and yes also growth the fishes said chatteris to nigeria with a populated project to cooperation of over 200000000 people nigel read correctly has gone dead 200 reps i cant freeze which makes their racial facade care free to all the population of about one to a 1000000000 which is grossly inadequate can pitch to the space center bluefish hole. One second to 10000. 00 population and of cause they are steam i just decide just let course Traumatic Stress disorder that would be as such i see and of course recently there has been one of such suicide rate which of course its indicative of detroit rich in Mental Health condition but the little dollar and the methods they use in iraq and other peoples i think. That needs much to be desired how its almost impossible to talk about Mental Illness is if its just one kind of illness but from your perspective when you look at suffering all having a Mental Illness. Who do you go to whos that to help thank you very much for having. I think 1st that these landscape of Mental Health and your is very front mental and generally speaking we hope your systems are nonsense but as functional as the possibility so for the average length human we dasnt wilts will yes this is a doctor when you want something along the or going to mistake but another its harms general practitioners or you know theyre all conventional doctors that beats you with the symptoms you know Mental Health problems and it just becomes really hard i mean of course we also have other parts of social portal we just. Sort of enable and counter any form of awareness so its kind of a you want to explain what that means because its a very easy sentence to say social cultural it just factis as if Everybody Knows every nigerian mono this but internationally around the well pick one of that is and explain what you mean. Ok so for example a look at the religious aspect. Of people would say its one of our biggest weaknesses and one of our people stands as well so for example you would hear somebody who had partial their own will but i dont i dont have the question is like a money session or you know i mean you see evidence of the fact that there are so many traditional healing comes across but you know where people have been known and be their rights are being valued because we have a psychosocial disability or a Mental Health mission and so believe it was done out of you that maybe did. Things like that so we see those kinds of not so thats just one aspect we just. Kind of now it seems and maybe people sort of shifting the way people think about Mental Health in sense that if i know that im going with something i wouldnt want or else what i want to be i dont want to tell a lie with a narrative but in some there wont be. Spirits you know possessed me or demons and perhaps i need not so those are the kinds of things that will give but generally its such a way that is suspended but very brief and thats one of the things that we try to be a Mental Health care especially at the level for example departmental and a at the grassroots Mental Health care where people can say ok im dealing with this i dont even know what it is but im the professionals the whole perfectionist a practitioners would be able to spot seats and be able to say this is a mental how well arent we i dont see that happening until how im glad you brought that up because we got this comment from someone watching on you tube this is Alexander Anderson who says we have to bring in religious leaders into this conversation and i pray at mosques and not once have i heard the issue of Mental Health being discussed i cant speak for churches here but he goes on to say usually they religious leaders tell you to pray and thats it i think there should be an open discussion about how prayer doesnt always solve our Mental Health challenges so lets dig right into that topics the stigma that goes along with this and the things that are not so helpful that others in the community might tell you to do dr b h u r talk take that on. I think the backlash against research one in 3 nigerian suffer from Mental Health issues is really indicators of the problem. When when we were on the case in consultation campaigns i would try to make people aware that Mental Health problems are just like physical Health Problems they can brain and physical problems from a headache to full blown cancer can be the same thing a Mental Health grange for of perhaps minor the parchin into full blown psychosis right but in one jury here we dont we have a very myopic view of Mental Health illness we feel anybody that suffers from a Mental Health issue is not and they have various names of it for its you know they would say are the ones on mars now on cluedo and on men so just several names just really really minor pic of you that i think we have a long way to go it. Sensitize an insurance that Mental Health issues can range from the even mild really severe problems of the country does a very mean how do you take that on every day as a as federal medical director this is your job to maybe work out how the government can help nigerians handle and treat Mental Illness how do you take on that stigma its really really. Yes. Its a very abundant observation that nigerians generally have a misconception a misperception about Mental Illness but the federal government on its quality has been doing a lot the levels of health care in nigeria divided into a tree thats the primary health care which is handled as a fully by the local government areas and the 2nd rate of care which is statutorily 100 by the. States and then the issue of health care which is due for the federal government the federal government has established about it nearest at catterick hospitals in the country to catch up with the geopolitical zones and the federal government has oversaw. The Specialty Hospital in the train in a primary health care walk into provision of Mental Health services a grassroot truly Mental Health Global Action plan intervention gates in several parts of the country several primary Health Care Primary Health Care Workers have been trained on detection and Early Intervention of Mental Illnesses that are drugs strong roots level and secondly has been an integration of Mental Health into trouble medical care what i mean by this is that there has been engagement of traditional rulers and of course to some extent trainings have been conducted for spiritual leaders such as past us humans in such and parts of the country i can clearly just to the photo to disinter been shown in what is 10 parts of nigeria in which so far weve trained over 250 primary Health Care Workers and weve also engaged ready just does such as the us does that you months in a truly disturbed. District much as it should strategies i think this will go along we didnt post if you if the import and if its in the get. Of course that would help perspectives like this this is you know he says there is a stigma attached to having Mental Health issues here and along with that comes a conspirator tauriel shroud of silence so its that idea that you cant talk about it that we got a video comment from someone who picks up on that idea this is and is that media personality in the interior and heres what he told us. When it comes to Mental Health people believe that its a curse that a witch in your village somehow put it on you to dish in over the ages and cultural reasons people dont give Mental Health the respect or the attention that needs luckily for today the stigma is changing a bit but definitely not enough there are people who have access to more education because of the internet because of social media because of n. G. O. S and doctors but that is just maybe the one percent of the one percent so dr victor she says its changing and i would venture to say its changing in part because of organizations like yours you have trained counselors ready to talk to people tell us about how that works. Yes so so we started up this. Text line 2 years ago and since then weve managed to reach out to more than 10028 months and what happens is that we have psychologists and counselors who are trained in problem solving therapy. On what constitutes what simple basically and when we get messages on the. Week we connect people to need help and services to these counselors who we have trained already and you know we must like up you know to provide some proxy for the conversations between them and. Family increasing the think people are not rich enough to show off but i wouldnt say that. My. Getting any better or would i see it as stigma is actually the problem for me from experience i would say that lack of actual Quality Services is an evidence based issue that needs to be be countered because if you do it much i dont think what does that mean. If you do too much awareness that this is where this program youre going to increase the demands of Mental Health services now if you increase the demand with the parties for mental status so be sure on the spot that your faculties to provide these services are going to cost and only 10. 00 a consequence which means that you know its going to go could have to begin to find a more crowded and its good somehow like cost of legacies kind of effect because then this thing was going to increase. So its not really just about improving the Awareness Program how about how do i have to pay out ok yes i think that the i agree with what they say seems possible but i also want to shed some light and its very easy for us to look at Mental Health and see old movies like the shoe or you know all of the Mental Health facility. But i think its also very important for us a little prevention because where a very large point. Its not enough for us to always look at Mental Health from the west point for. Were not in a system of wait were talking about very very new Psychiatric Hospital but the truth is that not every situation that every nigerian dealing with if they have been in Mental Health should know something that was biased intervention we need primary health care we need rustproof we need to be able to pass and i would just want to get a count so what was said the guardian governments response that i dont particularly believe that governments are doing enough i believe that there has been some bright yes but i dont think its been enough i dont think in 2019 nigeria is to use in the lunacy at the i think its 9 shows the readiness of the government i dont think issues that this there is i dont think it shows that there were there protecting the rights of people who live with Mental Health conditions i believe the government can still go and get me in collaboration with Civil Society organizations that your rights when money and and and means and they shall conducts bubble awareness but sorry nationwide awareness but also ensure that how how can we collaborate see beauty possibly at a Grassroots Level up are we going to pull a break when you get community beings Mental Health center and some of that will raise an awareness and people will see the sentence there are people that he begins to take in the table him can you respond to that just briefly. You know what she said its its true. That nigeria currently prints to lunacy at which we felt its very very a kick and today significant progress has been made the revision which is compatible with global realities of the time had been submitted to the National Assembly and correctly its been deliberate upon its at the touch level of hearing before you dissolution of the last session of the nationalists and how might that. Brown how might that help dancing a 959 newness that even that the terminology is is Old Fashioned an updated saying you can get something for 29000 display for how to help get help is that it takes him to write to the human rights of the claims it takes into cognisance d. D. Negative terminologies and stigma that had been used and it gives the plant powers to determine the poll and autonomy to determine what has been done to elected literacy at that embeds most of the poets in the hands of the police and the budget strict i want to share one other aspect in which people think the government can be doing more on and this is via a video comment from a registered nurse who interviewed nurses and medical professionals in Nigeria Research heres what he told the stream i think were all the more stuff. Is illegal legless of the issues around the development of Mental Health issues and. Is the lack of Government Resources a lot of Government Support for professionals working within the field imagine people telling you in the system when you oh i sometimes on the were like 2 on the wards of like 20 there to beijing and we have to manage them. So you heard him put the onus there on the government but theres someone online who is saying its not just the government this is femi who says on the day i diagnosis side there are very few groups interest hospitals that support mental how its a social aberration to even mention seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist public and private sector wouldnt consider investments in Mental Health because its seen as unprofitable so hes putting some of the onus there on the Public Sector doctor to be a. Yes thats such true i mean it would be highly impossible when you have no clients im so about the california argument i think we dont have to take one side and leave the other in terms of creating awareness of Mental Health issues the provision of Mental Health facilities in the country i think we have a lot of work to do both ways and we dont have to forgo one for the other im certainly not and a lot of fluids on back to the issue of the school which is approach to Mental Health issues in niger i think is a much more serious problem which were talking about and you wouldnt really find it in the city of mosul or the rule areas where people with Mental Health challenges of denial of the basic human rights and true can in the most abysmal way and when you have this religious challenged and you know big from the church or the mosque and exploiting these really Vulnerable People and gaining from them i think the government needs to do a lot more to that regard as well we need to write more checks for this religious tolerance and who provide who claim to be providing services that they cant possibly provide and also i think training in religious leaders you know has its pros and cons we also do some training as well as the Community Level but it took central that we let them know that their kids 1st learned respondents to provide really basic Mental Health 1st aid and if the problem is serious to pass on to the appropriate practitioners and some would say to not take musses into their hands now trying to speak for my kids under false sense of competence that they might be able to handle when the serious Mental Health issues i think about something that we get a consideration i might be i guess how that. How did i say i was as good as they like its very its very interesting because like you said obviously its not you know 7 the Mental Health crisis in nigeria its not any one group of people responsible its not going to be. People start your friends and neither is it the source has to be at the government but i think something that is really really important for us to take into consideration in addressing any kind of crisis including the like what you just understand in that not we all know about those its a body including the who have disabilities or mental conditions and the presence of nick on it sorts of reasons and youre going to be able to need your organs as well dr veiga i want to play this from your mattie web site let me just remind everybody that moneys the mentally ill when i jerry an initiative that he has has won awards for their work have a look here the nations doctors are working to convince the public that Mental Health problems can and should be treated according to help officials there are only 135 high priests in nigeria while there are more than 20000000 people suffering from various types of Mental Illnesses that statistic a scary and i dont even mention that. I am just wondering we have 3 doctors on. The stream right now nigerians love doctors doctors are lawyers if your pet if you become one of those your pets be very happy maybe an engineer as well why is it that they are more psychiatrists psychologists in nigeria if nigerians love the medical profession so much what we saw being up there could very very big very very big round rock but theyre not theyre not limited to any particular well. Theres not much that can be done in terms of producing more doctors but i believe them or doctors in training but the moment can wind up if you could even looking about specially marchal doping training one of the issues that we have been to contrie going to you. Us where theyre just not going to get out and really help and then we have medical not not in and in. We went to medical school i had some of my you know professional luck in our. Mission as well but i got the very very few of them to stigmatize it from within the medical profession not just outside as well. But this from mohammed on twitter who says to curb this as a society we need to realize that depression is an illness that should be treated the same way that we treat and the other illness thank you very much the conversation continues always online you can find myself at a. J. Straight see you next time thanks so much. To. The add to the at. The at to the at. Take the worst possible material eurabia grinding to dust comparable to flour and make up a lot of it and put it into place where people live it is a cause colossal event i do as well and so many people are thinking this is the silent killer but does it make you feel nice you feel like a murderer we have created an enormous and little mental disaster. 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