The Federal Government has said it has began mental healthcare delivery services at community levels for the prevention and control of mental disorders in the country.
Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu who made this known during the World Mental Health Day, said a National Mental Health Gap Action Programme (MhGAP) is already being implemented to this effect.
He observed that mental disorders have significant economic and social impact on individuals, families and communities, and regretted that they are among the non-communicable diseases that have suffered neglect in the past.
He recalled that mental health was the central agenda of the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting in May 2013, saying that the meeting developed strategies for addressing the social and economic aspects of mental disorders, especially the stigma and discrimination associated with them. He called for increased public awareness and understanding of mental disorders, particularly in the elderly in order to eradicate barriers to diagnosis and care, lamenting that that more than 40% of Nigerians continue to erroneously associate mental disorders to supernatural causes.
The minister noted that there are at the moment nine Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospitals across the country, besides the Departments of Psychiatry in all Federal Teaching Hospitals, as well as Psychiatry Units in all Federal Medical Centres, which provide specialized mental healthcare to Nigerians.
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