Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law the new Mental Health Care Act, a law that had not been updated since 1958 and which critics said was archaic and inhumane.
The new law, harmonized by the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2021, incorporates a budget line for the creation of a Department of Mental Health Services in the Federal Ministry of Health, as well as the creation of a Mental Health Fund.
«This legislation is outdated and archaic, reflecting a period in human history not only when mental health was grossly misunderstood, but also when the treatment of people with mental health care needs was inhumane and ineffective,» explained specialists Saheed Akinmayowa Lawal, Chris Azubogu and Taiwo Lateef Jeque for the journal ‘The Lancet’.
Approximately 80 percent of Nigerians with mental health needs, analyst Nicholas Aderinto recalled on Thursday for the daily ‘Punch’, are unable to receive proper care due to lack of funds, facilities, mental health personnel and cultural and religious stigma on these issues.
In Nigeria, mental health patients are often left in the hands of family members and the cold hands of spiritual therapies. Currently, Nigeria’s mental health care needs are met by fewer than 300 psychiatrists, most of whom live in the cities, according to media estimates.
Also, Nigeria’s mental health system is chronically underfunded so that only one in eight Nigerians suffering from mental illness can get care. The mental health budget is approximately 3.3 to 4 percent of GDP, with more than 90 percent going to a few neuropsychiatric hospitals, funded mainly through the national government’s health budget.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
