A Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Raphael Ogbolu, says the Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative (SURPI) of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, has   saved lots of people from committing suicide.

Ogbolu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos that the initiative had formed the bedrock of structured suicide prevention in Nigeria.

He spoke on the sidelines of the ongoing 49th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria.

NAN reports that theme of the meeting is entitled: “Brain Drain in Mental Health: Impact and Solutions“.

According to him, the initiative, which started in March 2017, has received calls from 20 different states of the federation spanning from North, South and South-East.

“Even, we are in Lagos; we have been able to save people who were on the verge of dying from suicide by linking up with our colleagues in different parts of the country.

“That tells us that people need service that they can access; we are hoping together collaboratively make it a national affair.

“There is no point for different hospitals to start replicating what we are doing, rather they should join in what we are doing so that we cover the whole country and that is a very huge development.

“If we are able to achieve that, it means we can have wider suicide prevention coverage and provision of care for those in crisis situations, “ he said.

The consultant urged the government to create policies that would improve mental wellbeing of Nigerians.

He said that one of those policies should include the expansion of the National Health Insurance Scheme to include more mental health conditions.

According to him, access to mental health treatment through the scheme is very limited.

“Most of the people who may develop some mental conditions cannot access treatment even if they are contributing to the scheme and that is unfair.

“The policies need to be adjusted with new policies; we need the Mental Health Bill to be passed and signed into law and expand the SURPI scope across the country,“ Ogbolu said. (NAN)