A professor of psychiatry at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Lateef Sheikh, has urged the Federal Government to set up a mental health department at the Federal Ministry of Health.“For realistic and effective implementation of national mental health service delivery for Nigeria, the successful take-off of the department of mental health in the federal ministry of health is required for effective coordination of mental health programmes in the country.
“We need to develop a road map for implementation of the law, support the FMoH with delivery at all levels of health care using the existing health system. There should also be the introduction of community mental care delivery within the existing health system,” Sheikh said.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, at the webinar said the Senate would pass the National Health Bill for the third reading in November 2020.
He said, “We have been privileged to support the processing and passage of a law that will guide and be a policy framework for sustainable and effective activities or actions towards addressing mental health disorders.
“Before we came in, there has been some attempt; there was a law that was in the draft stage. We looked at that and did some amendments and presented it.
“While we were doing that, we saw that the previous effort did not even make attempt to repeal the Lunacy Act which is the currently existing law in Nigerian legal books as far as mental health is concerned.”
The summit was themed, ‘Psychosocial Impact of the Pandemic and Relevance of Mental Health Discussions Post COVID-19.
Source: Punch
