Treat mental health as national security, FG charged

•As Kings Psychiatry debuts, seeks policy reforms

By Sola Ogundipe

Worried by the increasing spate of mental health challenges among Nigerians, a mental health specialist, Dr Oluwatoyin Oladejo has called on the Federal government to place mental health on the same priority level as national security and physical healthcare.

 Oladejo, a US trained healthcare entrepreneur, and Co-CEO of Kings Psychiatry, a Lagos-based mental health outpatient facility, warned that Nigeria's silent mental health epidemic was being fueled by stigma, poor policy integration and chronic shortage of specialists.

 Speaking at the unveiling of the mental health facility, Oladejo decried the increasing spate of mental health challenges warning that Nigeria may be sitting on a time bomb if urgent measures are not taken to stem the tide.

"This is a national issue, if the nation’s leaders and people are not mentally well, decision-making is affected and society cannot progress. 

 "Until we start talking about mental health openly, many more lives will be lost unnecessarily. Mental health is health, and Nigeria must treat it as such. 

"What we are proposing to the federal government is the integration of mental health screening into primary healthcare. When people come for routine checks like hypertension, diabetes or antenatal visits, they should also be screened for depression, anxiety and other mental health issues," she remarked.

Such integration, she explained, would help identify chronic conditions early and prevent tragic outcomes.

 "Primary healthcare providers should be empowered to start basic treatment immediately instead of waiting for a psychiatrist the patient may never be able to see.

 "If we intervene early in schools, we can reduce online abuse, workplace violence and broken families. Mental health is not a luxury; it is a national productivity issue. Untreated mental illnesses reduce workplace output, destabilise families and place a heavy financial burden on the country.

Calling for stronger engagement with faith-based organisations, she observed that churches have influence, noting that leaders should but educated to offer guidance on seeking professional mental health care and support.

A major policy gap, she argued, is the absence of routine mental health screening in Nigeria's primary healthcare system.

She said deep-rooted stigma surrounding mental illness forces families to hide affected relatives rather than seek help.

On his part, Lagos APC Publicity Secretary, Seye Oladejo, and also Co-CEO of Kings Psychiatry, lamented that fewer than 300 psychiatrists in Nigeria were dangerously inadequate.

Oladejo, a former Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations in Lagos and past Chairman of Mushin Local Government Area, described the criminalisation of attempted suicide as outdated and counterproductive.

"Someone who attempts suicide is not a criminal but a patient in crisis. They need urgent medical and psychological support, not arrest or prosecution," he said, adding that the Centre would actively support advocacy for legal reforms in line with global best practices.

"Our goal is to provide evidence-based, compassionate and confidential mental healthcare in an environment that restores dignity to patients. Mental illness should not be treated like a crime or hidden away in shame," he affirmed.

Kings Psychiatry meets international standards, with focus on privacy, professionalism and patient confidentiality.

It would offer psychiatric evaluations, counselling, psychotherapy, substance use disorder treatment and crisis intervention services. 

The new Centre, which operates strictly on an outpatient basis through appointment, offers discreet and affordable care. 

It plans large-scale community outreach, targeting educational institutions, worship houses and workplaces, with plans to address issues such as bullying, substance abuse, anxiety, and attention disorders from an early stage.

Lagos records breakthrough in Routine & HPV Immunisation with VaxSocial Project

By Sola Ogundipe

Lagos State has recorded a major breakthrough in routine and HPV immunisation awareness, and uptake through the Nigeria Vaccination Coverage (VaxSocial)  – a digital demand generation initiative reaching a total of 191,520 caregivers, supporting 92,219  on their routine immunisation journey and 98,601 guided on their HPV vaccination journey.

Overall, there were 3,900 immunisation-related facility visits in Lagos State during the course of the pilot project.

The project, sponsored by Gavi and supported by Nivi Inc, working closely with Save the Children in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Health, and the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, is a digital-first immunisation initiative designed to reduce vaccine hesitancy, boost confidence, and make vaccination more convenient for families. 

At the close-out ceremony of the project last week, the Programme Manager, VaxSocial Project, Dr. Felicia Mairiga, said it was a pilot to demonstrate if digital platforms can really work in supporting improving vaccination coverage. 

“In these last 18 months, we've done a lot, we've learned a lot, and we want to use that information and be context-specific about Lagos State, because there is opportunity for this to be scaled, not just in Lagos State, but in other states in the country. 

"This is a digital platform; it is in no way replacing all the immunisation projects in Lagos State. We just want to be sure that immunisation is carried along in this new wave of the use of digital spaces.

She noted that for the lessons learned not be lost, the initiative should be adopted into the Lagos state immunisation strategy, with expanded funding for HPV vaccination, motivation and incentivisation of health workers especially in hard-to-reach communities.

The recruitment of more frontline personnel to ease workload pressures, and guarantee consistent vaccine supply in every primary health centre were also recommended towards ensuring a future where no child or adolescent in Lagos misses vaccination because of misinformation, lack of access, or low confidence.

"It was a partnership between Save the Children and AskNivi - a digital platform and a digital-based organization, they support people to get access to the platform, and once you have access, you're able to get the correct information regarding routine immunisation and, of course, the HPV vaccine.  

“And then the way it is such that having access to the platform leads the caregiver on a journey to dispel all of their misinformation and to motivate them to take action fast and to refer them to the appropriate facilities. 

 “These people now have access so that they can continue to interact with this child, which goes even beyond immunisation to other health-related matters that they will need.  So that platform remains available, which they can access, through the QR code, through the WhatsApp number, or even on social media platforms, and continuously, whatever questions they have, continue to be addressed as they come.  

Also speaking, Veronica Obi, the Project Coordinator Nigeria Nivi Inc., stated: “VaxSocial is about digital demand generation, and we do this using awareness, where we do digital marketing online, creating awareness about routine immunisation and HPV vaccinations from our social media campaigns, and as we ran online, we had over 71 million impressions, which are how many people get to see this information or saw the information we passed about, HPV vaccination or routine immunization.

“We had over 13 million social media accounts reached, and over 100,000 people came in to chat with us on the chatbot about routine immunisation and HPV vaccination, and they received referrals to healthcare facilities. 

"The AskNivi platform is launched on WhatsApp, it is a Meta platform. and we leverage the security features of Meta, so the chats are end-to-end encrypted, they are 100 percent confidential. Currently, the people who chat most with us are 19 to 29 years, then we have the second highest number, which is 30 to 44 years.”

So far with the results we've recorded, we've had great feedback from the users who have used the AskNivi chatbot, and we hope to do more even though we're closing out.  We have a network of these users on the chatbot that anytime, even beyond the project, they can continue to chat with us and get health information.”  

On his part, John Oluwafemi, the Policy Advocacy and Campaign Officer, Save the Children, noted that the chatbot was designed with the mind that there are more English-speaking people in Lagos.

“But in our normal physical engagement with the community, they would rather prefer that we speak in Yoruba, contrary to the belief that Lagos is a place where English is the lingua franca. 

One of the observations in the process was the fact that a lot of people actually want to use technology. 

“Before you can be qualified to use the AskNivi platform, you must have a smartphone, while some people have smartphones, they don't have data; some have internet; but don't have data, and also, the people want to know if they can actually trust the platform,” he remarked.

Recounting some of the lessons learned, Dr. Magdalena Obande, the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning Assistant on the VaxSocial Project, noted, "Among lessons we learned from the project is that nothing is built without trust. We are in a digital age, an AI age, but if the people don't trust the system, or are not good with what we do, they wouldn't have given us an open hand.  So trust paved a whole lot of ways for us to implement this project and for community-held volunteers to be able to onboard as much as they did in the project.