The causes of mental disorder are often unclear but common causes include drug abuse, depression, dementia, schizophrenia, as well as stigma and discrimination.
The mental health experts who expressed their views in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria.In Nigeria, one out of seven persons will have serious mental illnesses, while one in four persons will have some form of mental disorder; and this is a conservative estimate,” Professor Oye Guruje, a psychiatrist with University of Ibadan, said
“Mental disorder is associated with societal vices, socio-economic pressures, emotional problems and political injustice like terrorism.”
Mr. Adeoye said people with mental health problems should not become outcasts in the society, rather, they should be treated like any other form of disease and accorded respect and dignity.
Janys Maiyamba, the Director, Child Development, Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, said the ministry had been taking care of people with mental disorder.
He said “we do not allow them to roam the streets because they can be violent. We often liaise with security agents to get them arrested, thereafter, we treat them by giving First Aid and psycho-social support and then try to trace their relations.”
A female relative to a someone suffering from mental disorder who pleaded not to be mentioned said some of her brothers had mental disorder.
She said “we are victims of broken home; our mother left our father when we were very small and influence from peer groups made two of my brothers to become drug addicts.
“As I am talking to you, the other one is on admission at Maiduguri Neuro Psychiatric Hospital.’’
Ona Ogulegwu, the Commander of NDLEA in Borno, also noted that drug abuse was a major cause of mental disorder in the state.
He said “when you look around, you will see many lunatics roaming about the street without any care and that is because the state does not have a rehabilitation centre to keep such people.
“Here in Borno NDLEA, we only have a counselling centre where drug peddlers are kept for some time. Can you imagine in the whole of Borno, we only have two psychiatric hospitals where such people are kept?.
“As a matter of fact, it is only the Federal Neuropsychiatric hospital that is functioning, we are therefore urging government to establish more rehabilitation centres that can accommodate such persons.’’
Yahya Imam, the Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Borno, lamented that the security challenges in the state were mainly responsible for the increase in number of people with mental disorder.
He said NOA had been sensitising the people, especially youth on the dangers of illicit drugs, yet the number of persons involved kept increasing partly due to the insecurity situation and other reasons best known to the victims.
The Executive Secretary, Jigawa State Rehabilitation Board, Ibrahim Rabakaya, said that apart from heredity, drug abuse among youths was a major cause of mental disorder in the state, adding that over 90 per cent of the addicts were males.
He said that the Board had two rehabilitation centres in the state; one in Birniwa Local Government Area for females and another in Gumel Local Government Area for males.
According to him, the Board also has a Psychiatric Hospital in Kazaure and that all the rehabilitation centres and the psychiatric hospital are being operated by the state government.
Mr. Rabakaya said people with mental disorder were first treated at the hospital before being sent to one of the centres for rehabilitation.
He identified the lack of psychiatric doctors to take care of the patients as a major challenge, adding, however, that lunatics were not allowed to roam the streets in the state.
He said skill acquisition programmes had been introduced to help them learn trades immediately they started recovering from their predicament.
Elsewhere in Adamawa, the office of the NDLEA also said drug abuse among youth was a major cause of mental disorder in the state.
Yakubu Kibo, the Commander of the Agency in the state said about 90 per cent of mentally deranged persons roaming the streets were addicts of Indian hemp and psychotropic substances.
He said “our records show that most of the mentally-ill persons in the state are young people who happen to be involved in abuse of illicit drugs.
“The agency has only one ill-equipped rehabilitation centre in Yola, where inmates are counselled and rehabilitated.’’
Meanwhile, Danladi Yunusa, an officer with the Adamawa State Department of Social Welfare, said that due to the lack of funding, homes established across the state to take care of mentally sick persons had to be shut down.
Mr. Yunusa confirmed that for the past eight years, no budget was allocated to the department to take care of mentally ill people in the state.
The officer said “apart from the lack of funding, the department also lacked adequate staff to take care of such persons.
“The two places where those affected were being taken for therapy and rehabilitation were the psychiatric hospital and the NDLEA Rehabilitation Centre, Yola.”
(NAN)
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