BREAKING NEWS, Health
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Using a study done by some scientists, Chinedu Nebo, former minister of power, expresses concern about lack of adequate mental treatments in the country
CHINEDU Nebo, a professor of mines and technology and former minister of Power, on Monday, August 31, has expressed concern at the level of insanity in the country. Nebo, who spoke as a guest lecturer at the Second Public Lecture organised by the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu in collaboration with the West African College of Nursing, rated governments at various levels low in the area of psychiatric and mental health care.
He said this was worrisome considering that some medical scholars had revealed that in a population of 160 million or thereabout, “it is speculated that 64 million Nigerians suffer from one form of mental illness or the other deserving attention.”
Delivering a paper entitled: ‘Psychiatric and Mental Health in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects,’ Nebo noted that government had done a lot in the area of primary health care, but much was yet to be done in the area of psychiatric and mental health.
The former identified causes of mental illness to include genetic composition, early development, neurological and psychological experiences and environmental stresses.
While calling for increased awareness on the treatment and management of mental disorder, Nebo said: “The belief that many Nigerians seem to hold that mental disorder is a result of supernatural forces and, therefore, only responds to cure through traditional practices and supernatural incantations, must give way and face the realities of modern conditions, which in fact, produce the stresses that lead to different level of mental conditions.”
— Sep 1, 2015 @ 16:05 GMT
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