The Director of Mental Health, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Tolu Ajomale, has called for strategies and increased collaboration among stakeholders to enhance access to mental healthcare in Nigeria.
Ajomale, the Guest Speaker, made the call at 2025 Annual General Meeting & Scientific Conference of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Yaba, on Wednesday, in Lagos.
The conference has the theme: “Confronting the Surge of Mental Disorders: Enhancing Access to Psychiatric Services in Nigeria”.
Ajomale said more efforts should be geared towards promoting access to quality, equitable and affordable mental health services in the country.
He said the ministry was open to collaborations, initiatives and contents to progress mental healthcare delivery.
He said the Lagos State Government through the ministry has launched and developed lots of mental health programmes geared towards improving mental healthcare access across the state.
According to him, efforts are underway to ensure the integration of mental health services into the primary healthcare for easy access to the communities and rural dwellers.
“We have been working to enhance access to mental healthcare across the state. There are programmes including the lagosmind.org, as platforms through which people can seek mental healthcare and help.
“We are also planning to get to the level of having a google map for mental health services, so that anyone in need of help/care can easily go there and be directed on how best to access mental health services.
“Efforts are underway to ensure integration of mental healthcare services into the primary healthcare for increased access.
“And we are open for more collaborations, associations like ARD can come up with initiatives, strategies to promote access to mental health services and we will not hesitate to approve such contents,” Ajomale said.
Also speaking, the Medical Director, Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Dr Olugbenga Owoeye, said there was the need to create awareness on factors contributing to mental health disorders in Nigeria.
Owoeye, who classified the causative elements into social, environmental and economic factors, said that the current economic hardship, coupled with the level of insecurity in the country might likely inflict mental illness on more Nigerians.
He said the citizens need to be sensitised on these factors that could affect their mental health to enable them apply the necessary coping mechanisms in order not to be affected.
According to him, the Nigerian society is a culture medium for organisms that put people at risk of mental illness.
“These include inflation, poverty, insurgency, kidnapping, rape, broken homes and broken marriages, financial problems, traumatic experiences and degrees of violences among others.
”In some cases, the individuals may not even know they are being exposed to mental health conditions; but the truth remained that the social and economic crisis are taking a toll on the mental health well-being of the citizens,” Owoeye said.
A Consultant Psychiatrist, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Temilade Adegbite, identified stigma as a major factor limiting access to mental healthcare.
Adegbite spoke on the sub-theme: “Understanding the Psychosocial Determinants of Poor Treatment Adherence in Schizophrenia; Focus on Self-stigma”
She said that self-stigma not only leads to increase in relapse, but also damages the therapeutic alliance, emphasising the need to develop strategies to address stigma.
In addressing the issue of stigma, Adegbite said that the role of psycho-education cannot be overemphasised, identifying social support, family education and challenging negative beliefs as some of the effective measures.
Earlier, the ARD President, Dr Oluwatoba Babarinsa emphasised the need for integration of mental health services into primary healthcare and other health programmes to promote easy access.
According to him, mental health services should be integrated into the primary healthcare system, HIV and cancer programmes so that more people both in the urban cities and grassroot can easily have access to it.
He, however, urged the government at all levels to intensify efforts to address the determinants/causative factors of mental health, as there was no health without mental health.
