Expert calls for more mental healthcare facilities

Dr Charles Nwaoga, an expert in psychiatry medicine, Quintessential Healthcare, an NGO in Jos has called on government at all levels and wealthy individuals to establish more mental healthcare facilities in Nigeria.

Nwaoga said the call became necessary due to the increasing cases of mental illness in the country.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Jos, that mental health facilities available in the country were inadequate to cater for the rising cases of mental illness.

The expert attributed the rising cases of mental illness to drug abuse, stress, economic downturn and depression.

According to him, mental health services are barely accessible outside the state capitals, adding that there is urgent need to establish mental healthcare facilities at the grassroots.

He also called on the government to subsidise the treatment of mental illness, to enable more mental patients access treatment.

The expert said this would go a long way to prevent mental cases from degenerating and making them difficult to treat or manage.

According to Nwaoga, mental health is often neglected and not accorded the same degree of importance as physical health.

He attributed the neglect of mental cases in the country to the public perception, equating people with psychiatric challenge to one suffering from insanity.

The expert advised members of the public to disabuse their minds from such insinuation.