Eko Hot Blog reports that the Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate and the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, recently held a press conference to commemorate the World Mental Health Day.
The briefing held on Tuesday, October 10, at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
The ministers highlighted the Nigerian government’s commitment to mental wellbeing, eradicating stigma, and enhancing access to mental health services.
They also revealed that they were working to ensure that Nigerians can get easy access to mental healthcare.
Pate called on Nigerians to de-criminalise mental health issues and empathise with patients suffering from such diseases.
He stated that the Federal Government’s approach towards mental health issues or diseases is to take it from a narrow bio-medical one to one that really conceives it as a public health issue.
This, he said, requires a multi-sectorial and multi-stakeholder approach to address it.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, the Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, and other stakeholders at the press conference on the 2023 World Mental Health Day
Pate added that the ministry is working to develop guidelines to operationalise the Mental Health Act that was passed into law in January.
On his part, Alausa said beyond the traditional mental health issues, substance abuse among the youth has become a scourge that should be focused on.
“It is really affecting our society, it is actually causing disruption to the lives of our youths and adolescents and as government we are looking into this angle and putting programmes and policies in place to tackle this major scourge,” the minister said.
Alausa also revealed that the Federal Government is working to change to change the names of neuropsychiatric hospitals to Federal Specialist Hospitals.
He said, “Focus is also ensuring the hospitals go beyond psychiatric care to providing other medical services which will complement the care for patients who have me.”
The minister added that the government will incorporate mental care into primary healthcare centres.
