Mental illness is one of the most stigmatised
illnesses in the world, especially in Africa. This attitude has serious social
implications for affected persons. Many have been denied marriage and other
employment opportunities even when they got better.
Educated folks, who know that there is treatment
for mental illness like any other condition, often discriminate against such
individuals. This belief has encouraged alternative methods of managing
mentally challenged patients. Families would rather conceal information and
sentence a relative with mental illness to spiritual cleansing instead of
seeking orthodox help.
The mental health policy articulation and
implementation suffer setbacks because we prefer to live in the denial of the
reality of the illness. Alternative caregivers have flourished at the
expense of the orthodox ones because they explore our cultural models.
Supernatural prescriptions of intervention such as
exorcism, offering of sacrifices to the gods, prescribed prayers and rituals
are some the unconscious psychological strategies we adopt to confront mental
illness and its management on the continent.
The mandate for mental health practice in Africa
and especially in Nigeria is to interrogate these alternative models and
interrupt their adverse influences that have been reported to be responsible
for increasing number of deaths among the mentally ill.
Our policy makers often bring what obtains in
developed countries as framework forgetting that there is a need to interrogate
this policy to accommodate our peculiarities. One aspect that is of importance
is to get the public educated on the early symptoms of mental illness because
our religious and social intuitions have masked its symptoms.
This is very important because research has
established that the earlier an appropriate method of intervention is
instituted, the better the outcome for such patients. But when the illness is
allowed to fester for too long without intervention, the personality of the
patient is gravely affected. The individual may become a shadow of him/herself.
When the illness is not identified early and
appropriate orthodox treatment is not instituted, the patient may wreck more
havoc in the community. A good of number of cases of murder, assault, suicide
and other social crimes, such as substance abuse may be traceable to mental
illness.
Several cases of marital instability and disrupted
family life may be linked to mental illness in one of the spouses. A good
number of our road traffic accidents may have been averted if the road safety
officers were trained to identify drivers who may be under the influence of
drugs.
Our schools cannot produce the best when mental
health issues are not considered and adapted into the running of the
curriculum. Productivity and overall performance of companies and organisations
are hinged on the early identification and treatment of mental ill health among
their employees.
In my opinion, mental well-being is the ultimate
index of good governance. Even for our religion institutions, the mental well-being
of the followers and believers is a verifiable gold standard of its
effectiveness.
Mental illness occurs when there is malfunctioning
of the human mind such as emotion, intellect, thought, cognition and mood. It
could be due to predisposing economic, social physical or political factors.
This disruption manifests in the mind in a way that ultimately causes distress
to the individual without him/her knowing it.
It may disturb sleep; make the individual walk long
distances aimlessly away from the house or make the individual spend more than
usual time in prayer without sleeping.
Some may fast to the point of damaging their
physical health. Others can suspect people without valid proofs. Some may show
undue generosity, sadness, over religiosity and excessive concern over security
or hygiene.
The guiding principle is that these manifestations
cause distress to the individual in a way that s/he is not aware of it. The
second point is that this abnormal functioning of the mind should be of concern
to others like children, spouses, friends, relatives and even co-workers.
My article is for this group since the patients are
not aware that their behaviour is abnormal. It is the responsibility of the
others to consider this observation and explore appropriate intervention.
The last point is that such behaviours should alert
response from the people whom the individual resides with irrespective of the
intellectual, cultural or religious rationalisations of the mentally-ill
patient.
Dr Adeoye Oyewole.adeoyewole2000@yahoo.com
+234 803 490 5808 (WhatsApp Only)
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