Mental disorders are common everywhere in the world and they contribute to disability, deaths, loss of economic productivity and poverty. Even parental illness contributes to intellectual and emotional consequences for the next generation. For any serious government, there should be public policy in place focusing on mental health that includes : promotion of mental health, prevention of mental disorders, improvement of the health and social functioning of people with mental illness, organizing services for early detection, treatment and rehabilitation to reduce premature deaths in people with mental illness, reduction of discrimination, protection of the rights and dignity of people with mental illness, promotion of psychological aspects of general health care, and development of human resources.
The settings for considerable action include workplaces, schools, prisons cities, rural areas, health services and social services. Other agencies that may be relevant include private business, insurance companies, private healthcare companies, employing organizations, places of worship, social and health care institutions, organizations concerned with poverty, youth, old age, human rights, the user and care groups.
Mental health, therefore, is related both to the environment in its structural terms but more importantly to the social processes influenced by that setting. In developed societies; the main thrust of their mental health policy is in the direction of mental capital development which is viewed as a resource that maintains well-being throughout the lifespan and confers the resilience to effectively cope with the challenges of life. It encompasses a person’s cognitive and emotional resources, which include flexibility, efficient learning strategies and emotional intelligence.
This highlights the importance of nurturing the mental resources that nature bequeaths to us in our children. We care little about the development of the minds of our children which actually begins from the point of conception because the mental and physical health of the pregnant mother has a profound influence on the well-being of the growing fetus to the point of delivery. our children get to us with empty cognitive slates -tabular rasa –at birth but the theologians claim that the seemingly innocent empty slates of the growing mind already has a programming towards activities detrimental to mental capital development if not trained. The 2 positions affirm the need for training of the growing mind having the parents and teachers as major stakeholders.
Education, which does not begin at school, is defined as the process by which every society attempts to preserve and upgrade the accumulated knowledge, skills and attitude in its natural setting and heritage in order to foster continuously the wellbeing of mankind and guarantee its survival against the unpredictable attacks of hostile and destructive elements and forces of man and nature. Education, therefore, is a critical template for the mental capital development programme. There are raging controversies concerning the most appropriate method of nurturing and disciplining the mind in the process of mental capital development; the ‘rod’ in this context represents the punitive corporal paradigm of training which is still very popular with the Africans although no longer used in other parts of the world because it is essentially about the body with little interaction with the mind that requires the nurturing. Most times, the use of the corporal ‘rod’ method does not engage the mind but a manifestation of frustration, displaced anger or embarrassment of ego. The innocent child perceives the method as punitive which disconnects from the cognitive processes required for assimilating the lessons. This paradigm has a foothold in our pre-colonial culture which gives no room for intellectual interaction and feedbacks adopted in our educational processes. The inquisitive, questioning and free association provides the template for mental capital development which the corporal approach annihilates. When the natural expression of the learner’s mind is stifled; there is no cognitive substrate available for nurturing. It is this faulty method that encourages practices like cramming, cheating in exams and non-application of knowledge partly responsible for skyrocketing unemployment.
Children brought up by this rigid, authoritarian method may grow up living a ‘double life’ that lays the foundation for future mental illness especially drug abuse. Creative and effective nurturing is possible through freedom of expression and engagement, free association and cognitively challenging the thoughts of the learner which definitely requires sophisticated emotional and intellectual resources on the part of the trainer.
This faulty corporal punitive paradigm is responsible for the disconnect between our education and productivity, mediocre materialistic values, prison functioning more as a punishment arena rather than a reformation facility and our law enforcement agents as terrors rather than helpers in assisting us to conform to the law they enforce. We have become a nation of people who plan daily to evade laws that we have no mental and social connection because of our punitive paradigm which that stifles mental capital development crucial for nation-building.
Dr Adeoye Oyewole
adeoyewole2000@yahoo.com
+234 803 490 5808 (WhatsApp Only)
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