The Founder of the Mental Health Foundation, Emmanuel Owoyemi, revealed on Thursday that 64 million Nigerians had one form of mental illness or the other. The expert advocated for quick passage of the Mental Health bill by the National Assembly.
Mr. Owoyemi, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, on the sideline of a forum to mark the 2013 World Mental Health Day, put a blame on the absence of a mental health policy in the country.
Among factors causing mental illnesses and being on the increase he mentioned poverty, hopelesneess, insecurity, panic at heart, anxiety, high level of depression. According to his words, another reason is
absence of mental health policy in the country at the moment as the National Assembly has been delaying passing the Mental Health Bill.
“We have about 150 psychiatrists; we have 34 neuro-surgeons in the whole country, meaning that, one point something million Nigerians is to one psychiatrist.
“How many people can one psychiatrist attend to within the 1.2 million or 1.3 million?", he asked.
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