Mental Health as an Index of Social Welfare

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 A government cannot exist without the people. As a matter of fact, the art of governance grew out of the necessity to cater to the needs of the people. The government therefore has a core mandate to guarantee the welfare of the people through the instrumentality of appropriate policy. Nigeria has experienced about three main types of government namely; the military, the colonial and the democratic systems of government.  Every one of them has always made attempts at addressing the socioeconomic needs of the people as a strong requirement for legitimacy. This function is crafted through a technical instrumentality of government known as social welfare policy. Every arm government whether at the federal, state or local has a department of social welfare that coordinates policy statements and programs focused on this major objective. Even our pre-colonial traditional societies had designated officers empowered to cater for the welfare of the people that reported to the king directly.

 My argument is that all the ministerial appendages of government require benchmarks and stringent coordination that interacts with leadership directly in the process of giving tangible feedbacks of the citizens’ wellbeing. Social policy has many dimensions and each is important and connected to all the others. One of the major purposes of social policy is to help people improve the quality of their lives; the truth of this statement, however, cannot be separated from another proposition that social policy also contains controls and may suppress the people if not well articulated.   Nigeria does not have a mediocre social policy, but there are no strong feedback mechanisms to clearly illustrate the impact of governance on the people. We hear of a rising GDP with paradoxical worsening of the socioeconomic indices of an average Nigerian which highlights a disconnect. Social welfare policy refers essentially to the principles, activities or framework for action adopted by a government to ensure a socially defined level of individual, family and community well-being. It is also an organized system of laws, programs and benefits and services which aid individuals and groups to attain satisfying standards of life, health and relationships needed to develop their full capacities.

Traditionally we have been very familiar with mental illness, insanity and madness with very little consideration of mental well-being hence we are not bothered since only a few folks walk the streets as vagrant psychotics.   The International Health Conference of June 1946 in New York redefined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. This is the point that the social welfare mandate of the medical profession began.  However, the profession has been floundering in her search for social policy linkages. The consulting clinics provide a panoramic view of happenings in the society where the doctor encounters the consequences of destructive lifestyles, poverty, poor housing, illiteracy and socioeconomic problems.  This is where the concept of mental health provides an adequate linkage as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, work more productively and fruitfully and able to make contributions to the community. This is the connection between social welfare and health. Every government that values the welfare of her people will place much emphasis on the feedback from the people. The mental health indices are arguably the most important determinant of the social welfare of a people and far removed from the number of folks walking the street naked.

 There is so much disconnect between claimed efforts and impact because certain principles of mental health are never considered in the implementation and coordination of programs of government. Developed societies have a whole government department dedicated to mental health while in Nigeria it is only a desk struggling for survival with non-communicable diseases that are clinical products of mental health issues. The overriding importance of the mental health paradigm as an index of social welfare is poorly understood hence its modest recognition in the articulation of government policies even in our Ministries of Health.

The ultimate value of any clinical endeavour is the development of mental capital which is viewed as a resource that maintains well-being throughout the lifespan and confers resilience to effectively cope with the challenges of life by empowering individuals to contribute effectively to society and experience a high personal quality of life.

 The mental health paradigm is the benchmark of effective leadership in all settings; whether family, business organizations, local, state or national governments. The mental health resource should be strategically positioned in any arm of government such that it can serve both as benchmark and channel of policies with direct interaction with the leadership.  Nigeria is ripe for a strong department of state for mental health at all levels of government.

Dr Adeoye Oyewole

adeoyewole2000@yahoo.com

+234 803 490 5808 (WhatsApp Only)