Ministry of Health Advice also is to help those in need are scarce so Many Mental Health advocates of take an unconventional approach is to tackling the crisis joining us to discuss this in a blue gen one geria doctor or i know hes a social Competence Research psychologist with the name a foundation and they goes how shes executive director and founder of she writes woman which aims to raise awareness about Mental Illness by giving a voice to those struggling and my daughter am dr abraham hes a medical director at the federal Psychiatric Hospital in delivery it is one of only 8 public Mental Health facilities in the entire country and in london dr victor hugo hes the founder of the mentally aware nigeria nice to have on manny its good to have you everybody thanks for joining us in the stream victim going to do some of that is not very often on t. V. In nigeria and that is for somebody to talk about that Mental Health can you tell us just very briefly how you tackled your Mental Health challenge what happened to you how did he solve it. I dont think. I dont pick up so good. How a bill could be. More like. When i was pregnant the question i had a lot of support from my friends from me or. When. My record. Journey and ive got the. Only reason why we got a call me you know. If you were to become know are what kind of each other if we were looking to add a at the extent of Mental Health challenges in nigeria how would you explain the landscape what is it like a street like. I think a lot of the im concerned about the Mental Health challenges and lunch or prison rolls of the crisis in the northeast to put things in perspective over 7000000 people have been affected in 3 straight to the northeastern nigeria out of the 7000000 people 1. 76 people have been displaced from the ancestral homes nice people from teachers to farmers to government walkers and fisherman lost everything that are around to this people suffering to really massive charming little occasional secondly since and such as depression and anxiety and stress and a lot of them have very little life left and its however the card for this one here is not only in the northeast suburb conflicts all across the country theres a conflict in a lot less on the bandits and we saw space conflict for the family had a crisis in the middle belts this crisis in a 9 to 12 theres also resources and cultism and so thoughts and so these conflicts in huge the Mental Health challenges are a serious problem in the country together with the economic situation. And i hear what youre saying there and yet there are a few i handful i will say there are not that many there are a few people online who are not quite convinced that the numbers are adding up or that the level of people wanting to seek Mental Health care or dealing with Mental Illness are what the government says they are so i wanted to share this from keith who says our government officials are known for cooking up numbers did the numbers come from a personal observation from a village or legitimate survey if so how was this survey conducted what region was focused on she goes on to say in a country where Mental Health is viewed as a taboo topic im curious to know who they talk to i do graphs from the question Mental Health is a very important topic thats needed to be tackled with a sense of urgency but these numbers just dont add up for me and the number she is talking about is the 3 in 10 nigerians who reportedly suffer from Mental Health issues dr ibrahim can you talk to us about what we know about the landscape what we know about those numbers. Thank you very much for the surety. I shared with a concern that theres a Mental Health issue in the not east particularly would display spent over over 2000000 people by the insurgency and particularly with the destruction of infrastructure as both a primary and secondary labels in both state and youll be state and of course yes some parts will put them on stage and theres growth deficiency of Mental Health facilities in nigeria the only Mental Health hospital that is on where the federal government is the federal psychiatry close to 20 m. A degree that has full what trichet 1000000000 people and yes also growth the fishes said chatteris to nigeria with a populated project took relational over 200000000 people nigeria currently has on dead 200 reps i catch phrase which makes their racial facade cat free to all the population of about one to a 1000000000 which is grossly inadequate can pitch to the space center bluefish whole. One second to 10000 population another cuz i just. Let course Traumatic Stress disorder that would be as such i see and of course recently there has been one of such suicide rate which of course its indicative of detour ritu Mental Health condition but the little doll a g. And the methods they use and i write in other peoples i think. That needs much to be desired how its almost impossible to talk about Mental Illness as if its just one kind of illness but from your perspective when you look at suffering or having a Mental Illness. Who do you go to use that to help thank you very much for having. I think 1st that these landscape of Mental Health in the gear is very front mental and when generally speaking we hope their systems are ones that its but as functional as the possibility so for the average length human we will pull yes thats the doctor when you want something wont be in there or going to mistake but another its harms general practitioners or you know conventional doctors that beats you with the symptoms you know Mental Health problems and it just becomes really hard i mean of course we also have other parts of social order we just. Sort of enable and counter any form of awareness so its kind of like you want to explain what that means because its a very easy sentence to say social cultural and it just fact is as if Everybody Knows every nigerian know this but internationally around the well pick one of that isnt explain what you mean. Ok so for example a look at the religious aspect. Of people would say its one of our biggest weaknesses and one of our people stands as well so for example you would hear somebody who has partial their own will but i dont i dont not the question is like a money session or you know i mean you see evidence of the fact that there are so many traditional healing comes across but you know where people have been known and be their rights have been. Because they have a psycho social disability or a Mental Health mission and so do believe. Out of you that maybe did. Things like that so we see those kinds of not so thats just one aspect but we just see those kind of now it seems and maybe people sort of shifting the way people think about Mental Health in sense that if i know that im going with something i wouldnt want or else what i want to be i dont want to tell a lie with a narrative that been some wont be. Spirits you know possessed me or demons and perhaps i need not so those are the kinds of things that will differ but generally its such a way that is suspended but very brief and thats one of the things that we try to be for Mental Health care especially at the level for example departmental a at the grassroots Mental Health care where people can say ok im dealing with this i dont even know what it is but i used the professionals the hope of arsenals a petition to be able to sports and to be able to say this is a mental how well arent we i dont see that happening until how im glad you brought that up because we got this comment from someone watching on you tube this is Alexander Anderson who says we have to bring in religious leaders into this conversation and i pray at mosques and not once have i heard the issue of Mental Health being discussed i cant speak for churches here but he goes on to say usually they religious leaders tell you to pray and thats it i think there should be an open discussion about how prayer doesnt always solve our Mental Health challenges so lets dig right into that topics the stigma that goes along with this and the things that are not so helpful that others in the community might tell you to do dr b. H. U. Our talk take that on. I think the backlash against the research one in 3 nigerian suffer from Mental Health issues is really indicators of the problem. When when we were on the case in conservation campaigns that were trying to make people aware that mental problems are just like physical Health Problems they can brain and physical problems from a headache to full blown cancer can do the same thing a Mental Health can bring true perhaps minor the question into full blown psychosis right but then once youre in here we dont we have a very myopic view of Mental Health illness we feel anybody that suffers from a Mental Health issue. And they have various names of it for its you know they would say are the ones on the on the on clueless on men so just several names just really really minor pic of you that i think we have a long way to go ahead and sensitize the lines here is that Mental Health issues can range from the even mild ready really severe problems of the country doesnt even here how do you take that on every day as a as a federal medical director this is your job to maybe work out how the government can help nigerians handle and treat Mental Illness how do you take on that stigma its really really. Yet. Its a very violent observation that nigerians generally have a misconception a misperception about Mental Illness but the federal government on its quality has been doing a lot the levels of health care in nigeria divided into a tree thats the primary health care which is handled as a fully by the local government areas and the 2nd rate of care which is statutorily 100 by the. States and then the pressure of health care which is due for the federal government the federal government has established about it mirrors at catterick hospitals in the country to catch up with the geopolitical zones and the federal government has oversaw. The Specialty Hospital into train in a primary health care walk into provision of Mental Health said this is a grass root truly Mental HealthGlobal Action plan intervention guides in several parts of the country several primary Health Care PrimaryHealth Care Workers have been trained on detection and the intervention of Mental Illness is such a drag strip level and secondly has been an integration of Mental Health into troubled medical care what i mean by this is that there has been engagement of traditional rulers and of course to some extent trainings have been conducted for spiritual leaders such as past us humans in such and parts of the country i can clearly has to be for the to these intervention in what is termed part of nigeria in which so far weve trained over 250 primary Health Care Workers and weve also engaged ready just does such as the past us and you months in a truly disturbed. District much as it should strategist i think this will go a lot we didnt post if impacts if the temple is sustained and if its in the good. Of course that would help perspectives like this is showing he says there is a stigma attached to having Mental Health issues here and along with that comes a conspirator tauriel shroud of silence so its that idea that you cant talk about it that we got a video comment from someone who picks up on that idea this is and is that media personality in the interior and heres what he told us. When it comes to Mental Health the nigeria people believe that its a curse that a witch in your village somehow put it on you to dish in over the ages and cultural reasons people dont give Mental Health the respect or the attention that needs locally for today the stigma is changing a bit but definitely not enough there are people who have access to more education because of the internet because of social media because of n. G. O. S and doctors but that is just maybe the one percent of the one percent so dr victor she says its changing and i would venture to say its changing in part because of organizations like yours you have trained counselors ready to talk to people tell us about how that works. Yes so so we started up this. Text line 2 years ago and since then weve managed to reach out to more than 10028 months and what happens is that we have psychologists and counselors who are trained in problem solving therapy. On what constitutes what simple basically and when we get messages on if theyre going to be to weak we connect people to need help and services to these counselors who we have trained already and you know more or less like up you know supervising frankly for the conversations between them and. Then increasing the think people im not rich enough to show off but i wouldnt say that. My. Getting any better or would i see it as stigma is actually the problem for me from experience i would say that lack of actual Quality Services is an evidence based issue that needs to be to be counted because if you do it much i think what does that mean yes if you do too much or when it said this is when this program youre going to increase the demands of Mental Health services now if you increase the demand with the parties for mental status so be sure of the profits your possibilities to provide these services are going to cost and only 10. 00 a consequence which means that you know its going to go could have to begin to find a more crowded and is going to somehow like cost of legacies kind of effect because then this thing was going to increase. So its not really just about improving the Awareness Program how about how do i have to pay out ok yes i think i think the i agree what they say seems possible but i also want to shed some light and its very easy for us to look at Mental Health and see old movies like the shoe or you know all of the Mental Health illness. But i think its also very important for us a little prevention because where a very large point. Its not enough for us to always look at Mental Health from the rest for the point of. Were not in a systemic way were talking about very very new Psychiatric Hospital but the truth is that not every situation that every nigerian dealing with if they have been in Mental Health should know something that was why i was so sure we intervention we need family help we need rest we need to be able to get past and i would just once a bit of counsel what was said the guardian governments response that i dont particularly believe that it governments and when enough i believe that there has been some bright yes but i dont think its been enough i dont think in 2019 nigeria is to use in a lunacy act one thing 59 shows the readiness of the government i dont think issues that this serious i dont think it shows that they were there protecting the rights of people who live with Mental Health and i believe the government can still go and get me in collaboration with Civil Society organizations that your rights when money and so on mean fundacion conducts bubble awareness but sorry nation wide awareness but also ensure that how how can we collaborate see beauty possibly at a Grassroots Level up are we going to pull a brick when you get community beings Mental Health center and so about well were raising the awareness and people will see the sentence there are people that he begins to take on the table him can you respond to that just briefly. You know what she said its its true. That nigeria currently auprince to lunacy at which we felt its very very a kick and today significant progress has been made the revision which is compatible with global realities of the time had been submitted to the National Assembly and correctly its been deliberate upon its at the touch level up here and before you dissolution of the last session of the nationalists and how might that be a brown how might that help dancing at 959 unison that even that the terminology is is Old Fashioned an updated saying you can get something for 29000 display for how to help but help is that it takes it to write to the human rights of the clans it takes into cognisance d. D. Negative timing elegies and stigma that had been used and it gives the plant powers to determine the poll and autonomy to determine what has been done to elected literacy at that in best most of the poets in the house of the on the budget straight i want to share one other aspect in which people think the government can be doing more on and this is via video comment from a registered nurse who interviewed nurses and medical professionals in nigeria has research and heres what he told the same. Thing where all of the most. Easily megaliths of the issues around the development on Mental Health issues and in niger is the lack of Government Resources of Government Support for professionals working within the field imagine people telling you in the system when you oh i sometimes on the were like 2 on the wards of like 20 there to beijing and we have to manage them. So you heard him put the onus there on the government but theres someone online who is saying its not just the government this is femi who says on the day i diagnosis side there are very few groups interest hospitals that support mental how its a social aberration to even mention seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist public and private sector wouldnt consider investments in Mental Health because its seen as unprofitable so hes putting some of the onus there on the Public Sector doctor to be a. Yes thats such true i mean it would be highly impossible when you have no clients and so about the california argument i think we dont have to take one side and leave the other in terms of creating awareness of Mental Health issues and the provision of Mental Health facilities in the country i think we have a lot of work to do both ways and we dont have to forgo one for the other im certainly not and a lot of fluids on back to the issue of this will just approach to Mental Health issues and engineer i think is a much more serious problem but which were talking about and you wouldnt really find it in the city most of the rule areas where people with Mental Health challenges of denial of the basic human rights and true can in the most abysmal way and when you have this religious challenge since you know big from the church or the mosque exploiting these really Vulnerable People and gaining from them i think the government needs to do a lot more to that regard as well we need to write more checks for this religious tolerance and who provide who claim to be providing services that they cant possibly provide and also i think training in religious leaders you know has its pros and cons we also do some training as well as the Community Level but it took central that we let them know that their kids 1st learned respondents to provide really basic Mental Health 1st aid and if the problem is serious to pass on to the appropriate practitioners some would say to not take musses into their hands now turning to speak for my kids under false sense of competence that they might be able to handle when serious Mental Health issues so i think about something that we get a consideration. That maybe. Its how that. How did i say i was as good as they like its very its very interesting because like you said obviously its not you know 7 the Mental Health crisis in nigeria its not any one group of peoples response its not a 1000000. People start your consumption neither is it the source has to be that the government but i think something that is really really important for us take into consideration in addressing any kind of crisis it wouldnt be like what you just understand in that not we all know about those its a body including the who would have disabilities and mental conditions and the presence of nick. Sorts of reasons and theyre going to be able to need your organs as well dr veiga i want to play this from your mattie web site let me just remind everybody that moneys the mentally ill when i jerry an initiative that he has has won awards for their work have a look here the nations doctors are working to convince the public that Mental Health problems can and should be treated according to help officials there are only 130 psychometrist in nigeria while there are more than 20000000 people suffering from various types of Mental Illnesses that statistic a scary and i dont even mention that. I am just wondering we have 3 doctors on. The stream right now nigerians love doctors doctors and lawyers your pet if you become one of those your pets be very happy maybe an engineer as well why is it that they are more psychiatrists psychologists in nigeria if nigerians love the medical profession so much what we saw being up there could very very big the very very big and theyre not theyre not limited to any particular well. Theres not much that can be done in terms of producing more doctors but i believe them or doctors in training at the moment can wind up if you could even cooking about specially marchal doctors in training one of the issues that we have been to contrie going to you. Us where theyre just not going to get out and really help and then we have medical that are not not intending to carry one of the medical school i had some of my you know professional locking up like a tree that you know very well but ive got the very bodies youve got all of the stigma ties it from within the medical profession not just outside as well but he came in with this from mohamed on twitter who says to curb this as a society we need to realize that depression is an illness that should be treated the same way that we treat and the other illness. Thank you very much try guess the conversation continues always online you can finally come myself at a j. Street see you next time thanks so much for the at a am. I am going to. The am to my. 80 percent of the visually impaired could be cured without access to treatment. And where there is a will there is a way strong a state of the art tossed metal covering over 77 countries calvin everything is racial be seen today in every role and in pakistan one learns passion provides flea treatment for over 1000000 patients and yet the cure revisited which is iraq oldest and i just. Want to want to use domesticate how in the gun law theres a plundering some of cambodias last remaining far as marking 2 years since the start of myanmars military campaign that schools hundreds of thousands of ranger muslims into exile how you look in countries and billions of euros supplying arms used in the gamble resulting in the worlds worst humanitarian crisis another bid to preserve multilateralism within a group of the 7 most advanced economies will cohesion prevail over with challenges for the g. 7 faces drawing on a decade of aljazeera documentaries rebinding visit the archive to find out how the story moved on august. The president s on Donald Trump Jr was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton or allegation like to see an investigation says the troops did the Trump Campaign colluding with russia did you at any time of the urge the former f. B. I. Director james comey in any way shape or form the closer the batten down the investigation into Michael Flynn and also as you will know. Next question battlefield washington on aljazeera. 0. 0 im Richelle Carey this is the news hour live from coming up in the next 60 minutes. So new Security Forces fired live rounds as protesters again fill the streets after the killing of schoolchildren on monday. The personal details of 106000000 people were stolen by a hacker in one of the largest data breaches and banking history