A Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the World Health Organization Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Neuroscience, Oye Guruje, has said besides assets declaration of the would-be ministers under President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senate should also harp on the need for them to be certified medically fit for the job.
The senate had last week told the ministerial nominees whose names were sent to the National Assembly for confirmation as ministers to declare their assets.
The Senate said the nominees must present their assets declarations forms from the Code of Conduct Bureau for them to qualify for screening.
But Guruje at this year’s World Mental Health Day 2015, held on Saturday, admonished the Senate to also insist that the incoming ministers should be men of integrity like Buhari so as to jointly salvage the economy of the nation from the brink of collapse occasioned by years of mindless stealing of the nation’s treasury by certain public officers.
Guruje, who is also the initiator of and project director of the mental health leadership and advocacy programme, a project of mental health leadership capacity building and advocacy being conducted in five west African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Gambia), said corruption is a thing of the mind and not necessarily connected with the state of mental health of public officers.
With this year’s theme as: “Dignity in Mental Health,” Prof. Guruje told reporters at the Nigeria Union of Journalists secretariat in, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo State that the stakeholders are raising awareness on what can be done to ensure that people with mental health conditions live with dignity, through the development and implementation of policies and law that protect their human rights, adequate training of health professionals to provide effective mental health service, respect for the views of persons with mental health conditions by their health providers, their inclusion in decision-making processes, and informed public attitude to mental illness.
Guruje, who was flanked by Dr. Adeoye Oyewole, a consultant psychiatrist, and Dr. Vivian Ikem, whose new book: “Shadows in the Mirror -the many faces of depression,” billed for launch later this month in Lagos, was introduced to the public, quoted from a 2010 report which stated that about one in seven adult Nigerians will have one form of mental disorder or the other in their lifetime.
He said: “Many Nigerian communities are faced with factors that present risks to mental health, including poverty, conflicts and disasters.
“It can therefore be no surprise that mental disorders are on the rise in our communities.
“Mental disorders, including the very common ones, are associated with several adverse effects.
“They often lead to premature termination of education, marital dysfunction, unemployment and loss of earning, parental dysfunction and poverty.
“Indeed it has been established that some of the commonly occurring mental disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders are more disabling than many of the common chronic physical health conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes or hypertension.”
Regretting that people with mental illness have limited access to treatment globally, Prof. Guruje called for action to correct the anomaly, adding: “Persons with mental health challenges are often ignored or neglected.
“Many of them become targets of physical and emotional abuse, stigma and discrimination.
“Indeed, the pervasive stigma of mental disorders is a major reason why the required policy attention as well as the needed resources for improving mental health service are often not provided by policy makers.”
Guruje therefore called on the media to spread the news that mental health illness is like every other health challenges, mental health is common, mental health is treatable and that someone with mental health illness can recover fully with treatment and become a productive member of the society.
There are testimonies to that effect around the world, he added.