A global public health group, comprising NGOs, teachers, counsellors and other stakeholders in the health sector, has launched a five-year initiative to support governments, agencies and policy makers to enable them prioritise mental health re-education, promotion and implementation of policies with the objective of achieving a healthy mental state and well-being for citizens.
Organised by Vortex Global Consultancy, London, the group made up of nearly 40 stakeholders held a two-day virtual conference, recently, to discuss the modalities of how to mainstream mental health services, especially in low and medium income countries.
Addressing the conference, a Consultant at Vortex Global Consultancy, Ms Blessing Esekie, regretted that mental health has not been prioritised in developing countries in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, while institutionalisation of the mentally ill is still being prioritised over community efforts in promoting their well-being.
Ms Esekie noted a lack of emphasis on community involvement and mental health education in Primary Health Care facilities, adding that mental health is still largely unaddressed while misconceptions have been allowed to persist and stereotypes have reduced health seeking behaviour.
She therefore urged all those who work at enforcing policies within countries, societies and organisations to give premium attention to the effects of what they have in their policies about mental well-being and motivate communities with re-education and promotional activities that are part of free basic healthcare.
In his own address, a child and youth security advocate from Nigeria’s South Western Region, Mr Kolawole Adewole, who gave a presentations on the importance and current state of adolescent mental health, emphasised many facets of this major global health concern, including drug abuse, suicide, unemployment, poverty and a shortage of basic primary healthcare services in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Also making a presentation on Mental Health in the Workplaces and Educational Institutions, a London based clerical physiologist, Dr Nancy Nsia, underscored the value of mental health services and policies in workplace and educational institutions as mental health problems adversely affect companies and their workers.
According to Dr Nsia, who is assisting minority ethnic groups in gaining access to culturally specific psychological therapies, children and adolescents who face socio-economic disadvantage such as poverty or lack of sufficient health or social services are more likely, to develop mental health problems but however lamented that attempts to address the mental health needs of children and adolescents have remained a neglected issue.
In his contribution, a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Hull and Associate Lecturer at the University of Sunderland in London, Dr Franklin Onwukwugha, discussed the gaps that existed in developing countries according to the World Health Organisation(WHO) mental health related date, identified a lack of community empowerment to handle mental education and care, and emphasised the need to incorporate mental health policies into the health programmes of developing countries.

By: Opaka Dokubo