Media practitioners in the south east have urged government at all levels to increase budgetary provisions towards tackling mental health issues in the country.
This call came Thursday at Amaudo Itumbauzo in Bende LGA at the end of a One Day Seminar organized for Media Practitioners in the Southeast with the theme: “Changing The Narratives In Mental Health, The Role Of The Media”, organized by the Methodist Church Nigeria, Amaudo Integrated Mental Health Foundation, in partnership with Abia state Government, Federal Neuro- Psychiatric Hospital Enugu and Amaudo UK, on Thursday.
While also calling for provision of incentives for medical practitioners and Journalists in the field, the participants also called for the strengthening of relevant government agencies saddled with the responsibility of regulating drug use so as to restrict access to drugs especially among the younger population, as well as give adequate attention to mental health issues and equip facilities at the Primary health care level to address cases relating to mental health.
This was even as the Director of the centre, Very Rev’d Kenneth Nwaubani pleaded with the federal and governments at all levels to assist the centre with fund and road infrastructure which they has been battling with since 1989 when the centre was established by Sister Rosalind ‘Nkechi’ Colwill.
In a communique issued at the end of the seminar which was aimed at educating the media practitioners on basic mental health issues and their role in creating awareness for efficient and human-right based mental health care in Nigeria, the participants called on the federal government to make the study of mental health and other related courses attractive with a view to addressing the shortage of manpower in the mental health sub sector.
They equally called on State Governments to domesticate and implement the new mental health act recently signed into law by the immediate past administration of President Mohammadu Buhari, advising that experts in mental health area should be open to discussing mental health related issues with the media as a way of educating the public while families of victims of mental ill health should be encouraged to accommodate and assist them appropriately and avoid stigmatization.
Lack of adequate knowledge in the area as a challenge was identified, hence the need for regular seminars/trainings for Media Practitioners on mental health issues as a way of properly equipping them to eliminate bias in their reportage and enhance the publicity given to mental health issues.
They called on Media organizations “to design and dedicate adequate time to publicizing mental health issues in their various media outfits as a way of enhancing sensitization of the public”.
They commended the organizers for putting up the program at a time many Nigerians are grappling with the harsh economic challenges occasioned by anti – People’s policies capable of triggering mental health concerns among the populace and also commended the management of Amaudo Integrated Mental Health Foundation for the huge humanitarian services they are rendering and called on government to urgently address issues such as lack of access road, electricity and other infrastructural deficits in the area as a way of encouraging the foundation.
The organizers, led by the Director of the centre, Very Rev’d Kenneth Nwaubani expressed their believe that the seminar would equally educate the media organizations on their role in creating awareness in mental health and address poor mental health knowledge, negative socio-cultural and religious perceptions and interpretations of mental health that promote stigma and discrimination as well as reduce help seeking behaviors in mental health among the population.
Earlier in a lecture, a Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Dr. Okwudili Obayi said journalists have high tendency to face job-related mental health issues that include anxiety, depression, sleep/eating disorder, burnout, post traumatic stress, among others influenced by areas of press coverage like conflicts, terrorism, climate/natural disasters, murders/killings, rape accidents among others.
While advising journalists to reduce stress as much as possible, he cautioned about choice of words by journalists in mental health reporting to avoid stigmatization.
The seminar was attended by media practitioners from the south east.
