John Michael Ojo

The issues of mental health in contemporary times have gone beyond those normally identified with crazy people on the street. These issues have become  a silent pandemic as one in every four persons is a victim of mental health.

This was the position of the Chief Executive Officer of JARS Education Group and the President of JARS Therapeutics, Prof. Akindotun Merino.

Prof. Merino  spoke at a programme organised by the Asake Centre, a Community Trauma Care Centre in  Lagos State put up by Merino with the aim of creating trauma awareness, providing affordable, available, social and psycho-social support to all Nigerians who are traumatised.

The California-based mental health expert stated that trauma among the old and the young is on the rise. Hence, the need for urgent preventive and support measures.

Merino, a Mental Health Commissioner in California, USA, said that “trauma is pervasive in Nigeria and when we talk about trauma, we are not just talking about somebody getting into an accident but rather emotional trauma.

“I’m talking about such high stress because of the things we do and everybody just says deal with it or you will be ok.

“There is rape, suicide, high rate of depression and even traffic can cause high stress.

” We have something called adverse child experiences, we have children who have experienced adversity growing up, children whose parents or guardians were abusive towards them, your boss that is being abusive towards you.

“Anything that has come to distort your life; divorce, living in a marriage that is filled with domestic violence or abuse of drug.

“When you hear people abuse drugs, sometimes it is not because they want to abuse it, sometimes it’s just to douse the pain of what they are experiencing

“And so, in this continent and in this nation particularly, we have to start thinking about mental health.

“Do you know that Nigeria as a country actually  loses  fifty-seven billion naira per year on mental health issues? Those are people who don’t go to work, who are not performing at their best because they have some forms of psychosis or they have some kind of depressed state that is happening with them.

“This is not just about crazy people, this is about all of us. It is not about somebody who is on the street who is mad, no, it is about all of us. It is about your father, it is about your mother, it is about yourself, about your children, it is that we are psychologically sane, it is that we are emotionally healthy, it is that you are financially buyable, it is that we are socially connected and it is that we are a community helping each other, so that we can be a better Nigeria.

“No matter how smart you are, no matter how intelligent you are, if you are not mentally well, you will not become the best of yourself.”

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According to Merino, JARS Therapeutics Centre will complement other government- owned mental health facilities in the state. She further noted that the centre would not act as an in-patient facility but one in which individual could easily work in and get assistance from mental heath professionals.

“What we are doing is for the community, is for the person who does not need medication but they know that there is something wrong with them, are not living their best lives and need somebody to talk to.

“We have trauma-trained specialists because we are introducing community trauma health but we also have an institute called JARS Institute and we have trained about sixty trauma specialists between 2020 and today and so, we have them in the country, we want people to know that they are there”, she said.

Stressing the importance of the centre, Merino  also lamented the lack of adequate psychiatric facilities in the country.

” It is so important because we have 250 psychiatrists or less in this country in a nation of two hundred million people. The number is just unbelievable.

“So what we are doing is to bridge the gap. While the government takes care of the mentally ill, we want to take care of the middle, before you get to the place where you lose it, commit suicide, before you get to a place where you have some form of psychosis we want to be there providing affordable care. So nobody is turned away, if you don’t have money you can  come, but if you do we can charge”, she noted.

On the rate of those who suffer from trauma in the country, the mental health specialist stated that “one in every four person does”. she also stated that the Nigeria government has also come up with such a report in the past.

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She disclosed that the centre would collaborate with government and non-government organisations both locally and internationally in pursuing its objectives by creating trauma awareness in the country. She also revealed that the government could earn more than N57 billion in revenue yearly if  mental health challenges are addressed in the country.

Merino warned that if trauma issues are not properly handled, they could affect many generations of the individual through a process called epic-generics.

“If something happened to your grandfather or your grandmother and they didn’t take care of it, maybe they were abused somewhere or maybe they where pained in some kind of way and they didn’t take care of, it will move from one generation to another. The children would experience the pain of something they where not part of and this can go up to the fourteenth generation”, she said.

On what could be done, Merino stated that a communally could heal together

“What trauma has come to do is to destabilise your life, to take you away from your source of being. So, communally we heal together. According to her, it is in the context of relationship that we get hurt and also it is in the context of healthy relationship that we get healed. She therefore advised that one should “find those relationships that are healing and begin to nurture them as these would enable us to build a healthy community.”.

On his part, Toyin Sombe, a Counselling and Clinical Psychologist, disclosed that it was of no secret that without mental health there is no health as the brain which he referred to as the governor of the human system would be in disarray.

He stated that the programme was kick- starting from Lagos as the state remains the only state in Nigeria which seems to be concerned with mental health challenges in the country.

Also, a Psychiatric Consultant and the Medical Director of Tranquil and Quest Behavioral Health, Dr. Gbonjubola Abiri,  Stated that “trauma is a significant stressful life event that happens on individuals and many times, the individual is not expecting it and does not have the resources to cope with that problem at that time.”

She, however, noted that trauma differs in many people and could be affected by age, social status, economic status and emotional state of mind.

“Generally what you should look out for is a deviation from the norm. Has this person changed from how they behave, how they appear, how they look, how they dress, how they speak, how they express their thought, are they keeping to self, are they sleeping more or less, eating more or less, are they becoming more aggressive or are we noticing that in a bit to cope with their stress they are turning into harmful coping strategies such as drinking alcohol excessively, use of marijuana, or other illicit harmful substances?

“When people are under a lot of stress, they start cutting themselves, think of taking their own life and may eventually commit suicide.”

She maintained that these were the different presentations of people with trauma.

Abiri said that “it was important for people to know that if your are traumatised you are not alone.

“Trauma happens to us at different stages of our lives but the most important thing is getting the help you deserve as soon as possible.

“That the help you deserve should be like a physical First-Aid”, she said.

She hoped that the initiative would not only increase the awareness of trauma but mental health in general.

She warned that the abuse of drugs especially “crack cocaine” among adolescents and teenagers was on the increase.

Dr Olayinka Jibunoh, a consultant psychiatrist and psychologist, who represented the First Lady, noted that the Lagos State government was committed to the wellbeing and welfare of residents and as such, no stone would be left unturned in ensuring that residents of the state get the best form of health care, including mental health in the state.

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Narrating her story, a  mental health trauma survivor, Mrs Eniola Adetunro, who was among the panellists revealed how she became traumatised after being raped at the age of 13 by seven men and taken advantage of by her step brother whom she confided in as the brother became another rapist who slept with her severally, a condition which almost shattered her dreams, affecting her education, self-esteem and the early stage of her marriage until she discovered the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba where she was helped.

While  responding to newsmen, the executive director of Virgins Pride Foundation, Lagos State, Dr. Nkechi Cicilia Odebiyi, noted   that the wellness centre will help to reduce the number of  people walking on the street. She stressed that most of the youths come from dysfunctional homes with nobody to talk with and are often left in the hands of religious leaders who offer prayers but never attend to the psycho-social needs of these individuals. She also hopes that Nigerians will take the opportunity of the centre by seeking professional help for a better society.

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