A don with the Psychiatric Department of the Jos University Teaching, Dr. Taiwo Obindo, has disclosed that over 5,000 persons with new cases of mental health have been identified in Plateau State in the last one year.
Taiwo made the disclosure while presenting a paper in celebration of the World Mental Health Day.
He said: “”In the last one year, there are over 5,000 new cases of mental health in Jos, which is very high.
“And the fact is that the facility we have is not even enough.”
The celebration, which was organized by the Jos University Teaching Hospital Psychiatric Department in collaboration the Nigeria Medical Association, was with the theme: “Living with Schizoprenia.”
It was held at Gindiri in Mangu Local Government Area of the state.
Taiwo said: “Schizophrenia is one of the mental disorders, a condition in psychiatry where the individual has problems with his thinking, the way he interacts with people and that tends to affects him in his functioning.”
He further explained that someone with Schizophrenia tends to hear voices and see things, which other persons don’t.
He added: “We have people that are vulnerable that need our attention and help.
“It is possible for someone with Schizophrenia to function well.
“This year, we chose Schizophrenia because it is one of the major mental illnesses that we treat and treatment tends to be prolonged, because people with the illness tend to live for a long time.
“A lot of people believe that it cannot be treated in the hospital so they rather go for traditional medicine, spiritual intervention.
“But the World Health Organisation is saying it is possible to live with Schizophrenia because it is like any other chronic illness in the body.
“Somebody who has glaucoma in the eye or hypertension still lives with it.
“All he does is take his medication.”
Taiwo said one of the preventive measures is for women to attend complete antenatal care that is for primary cases, while the secondary prevention is to reduce the mobility.
In his remarks, the Plateau State Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, Dr. Pokop Bupwatda, said the management of JUTH wants to expand its comprehensive healthcare services to rural communities.
Bupwatda maintained that surgeries would be performed in the JUTH centre in Gindiri, which will reduce the stress of travelling to Jos.
On psychiatric cases, the NMA chairman, who is also the Medical Superintendent of JUTH Comprehensive Centre in Gindiri, said: “We are starting the community psychiatry here.
“That is why we are marking the World Mental Health Day at the Centre here in order to commence the psychiatric management so that people don’t have to go to Shendam, Quan Pan and others from the Southern Plateau to travel all the way to Jos to collect their drugs.
“And if there are new cases, they can be handled here.”