The Chief Medical Director, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Olugbenga Owoeye, has urged psychiatry practitioners and departments in hospitals to embrace research to sustain relevance.
He gave the advice at the sixth Annual Research Conference Books of Abstracts of the hospital held on Thursday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the conference, which featured different research work presentations by some departments of the hospital, has as its theme, ‘Socioeconomic Crisis and Mental Health.’
He said the research would not only improve the quality of service delivery on mental health but also broaden the scope of knowledge about the profession.
Owoeye, in his welcome address, said the declining economy had adversely affected known protective factors on mental health.
According to him, such factors include social support, income, and availability of mental health facilities and services, among others.
He said the absence of these factors would lead to a significant and unprecedented worsening state of people’s mental health.
Owoeye added that socioeconomic problems interfere with the delivery of quality mental health services as funding for mental health institutions was dwindling.
He noted that the decline in real income of most health workforce led to the exodus of healthcare professionals.
According to him, “With research, mental health practitioners will be up-to-date with new methodologies and developments needed to service the increasing population mental health.
“Several studies have associated worsening socioeconomic factors with increase prevalence of mental disorders and improvement in socioeconomic indices with enhanced mental health of the population.
“Therefore, it is important to understand the various socioeconomic factors impeding mental health service delivery and develop evidence-based approach in ameliorating these conditions so as to improve the mental health status of the population.”
Also, a professor of psychiatry, Abiodun Adewuya, urged psychiatry professionals to increase their rate of detecting people with high risks of developing mental health conditions due to socioeconomic crisis.
He said socioeconomic factors that affected mental health included insecurity, unemployment, food insecurity, high cost of living, relationship problems, and accommodation issues, among other challenges.
The professor said collective efforts of all stakeholders were required to address the socioeconomic effects on mental health.
“If the practitioners increase their detecting rate of people with high risks of developing mental health conditions; it will create room for mental health conditions to be tackled earlier without allowing it to escalate.
“The mental health services should be integrated into the primary healthcare system and made readily available so that people can easily access them,” he said.
He also called for intensification of efforts by the government at all levels to address the socioeconomic challenges in the country to relieve citizens of the stress and trauma associated with such challenges.
“Let there be more job opportunities; the National Youth Service Corps can be extended to two years so that those unable to secure jobs immediately after graduation can be working under the programme and be paid by the government pending when they get jobs.
“With this, a lot of people will be gainfully engaged leading to increased contributions to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product and reduced mental health cases,” Adewuya said.
(NAN)
