*Putting mental health in the front burner: curbing the menace of depression and suicide in Nigeria*
This is *a must read* for all clinicians
A presentation delivered by Dr Olatunde Olayinka AYINDE
MBBS;MS(Intl Health Policy&Mgt)FWACP(Psychiatry)
Research Associate and Associate Lecturer
WHO Collaborating Centre for Reasearch and Training in Mental Health,Neurosciences and Substance Abuse
Dept of Psychiatry
College of Medicine
University of Ibadan
08032107441
At the 4th Anniversary of the *Doctors Time Out Family (DTOF)* organisation; A non profit making NGO/social media medical network group
Kindly permit me to stand on existing protocols. And may I also use this opportunity to thank the founders and members of this platform for giving me this unique opportunity to address this highly cerebral and socially impactful group. Your efforts are appreciated and your good works continue to speak for you.
Without wasting much time, let me go straight to my topic. This is going to be as interactive as possible and questions can be asked at any time.
I shall be diving the talk into 3 segments:
1. Mental health
2. Depression
3. Suicide
We will also address other lingering issues at the end of the talk.
So what do we mean when we say a person has good mental health?
Good mental health means successful performance of mental functions in terms of emotion, thinking, perception of oneself and the world, and one's behaviour, such that one is able to form life-long relationships with others, be useful to oneself and to others, be able to face adversity and overcome it and fulfil one’s life ambitions.
Meaning that most of the things we do as humans require one to have good mental health. The seat of mental wellbeing is in the brain. Meaning that the brain is the headquarters of one's being. Keeping the brain healthy is a priority. Also, the brain and the body are both connected in anatomy and function, so keeping the brain healthy goes hand in hand with keeping the body healthy.
In a nutshell, there is no health without mental health
This is very important for us as doctors, because of the risks we are exposed to:
1. Long working hours
2. Witnessing suffering every day
3. Not taking adequate rest
4. The need to perform academically every day
5. Exams...
6. Harassment and bullying from superiors
7. Poor working of Proven ways to cope with normal stresses of life.
In the midst of all of these, there are also social pressures that doctors are not not immune to:
1. Social fragmentation
2. Unemployment and underemployment
3. Poverty
Etc
Indeed, it's been shown that the period of residency is one of the most stressful periods in the life of a doctor.
Unfortunately, not many hospitals have established functional psychological support for doctors or any member of staff, for that matter
So we're left to be lamps that light the way for others but refuse to light it's own immediate base.
This is something we need to pay attention to. Doctors lives matter too. We're human and we also need help from time to time. ARD and other doctors lobby groups, please take note.
In Nigeria, 1 in 7 adults will have at least one mental disorder in their lifetimes.
Currently there are barely 1 psychiatrist to manage 1 million Nigerians. That's
a very low figure indeed. This figure is even lower for other mental health professionals such as psychologists, nurses and social workers.
We also know from surveys that less than 20% of Nigerians who have mental disorders get any effective treatment.
These mental disorders are a major cause of disability and often lead to premature termination of education, marital dysfunction, unemployment, loss of income, family dysfunction and poverty.
So you can imagine the huge economic burden of untreated mental illness.
In fact, worldwide today, depression is the leading cause of disability.
And that takes us to the discussion of depression.
But before we do that, all doctors need to realise the need for improving access to mental healthcare because doctors are also at risk, our patients are
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