The Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), on Thursday, said less than 200 psychiatrists attend to the mental health needs of well over 200 million Nigerians.
The President of APN, Prof. Taiwo Obindo, stated this in his address at the opening of the 55th Annual General Conference and Scientific Meeting of the association in Ilorin.
The conference has as its theme: “Prioritising Mental Health Needs of Nigeria in a Depressed Economy: An Urgent call for Integrated, Comprehensive and Sustainable Interventions”.
Obindo observed that the “japa syndrome” had greatly depleted the number of mental health Practitioners in the country.
He lamented that these tides need to be stemmed and reversed as the remaining mental health practitioners were overworked and poorly remunerated.
Obindo stated that mental health was yet to be accorded the needed attention by the government and cited Canada as an example, which had a functional Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions.
According to him, Nigeria needs to lay emphasis and importance on mental health.
“Mental health in Nigeria is still a programme under the Department of Public Health in the Federal Ministry of Health.
“One other area needing attention is the budgetary allocation to health, and by extension, mental health, which is less than six per cent.
“This falls short of the Abuja Declaration of 2001, where health allocation was to be pegged at a minimum of 15 per cent of every country’s annual budget,” he said.
The APN president said the association had achieved some milestones in the establishment of Mental Health Programme.
He called for the implementation of the Mental Health Act of 2021, which replaced the Lunacy Act of 1958.
This, Obindo said, was a significant milestone after more than 30 years of failed efforts.
