Mental health crisis: Fewer than 300 psychiatrists serve over 200m Nigerians — Sheikh
Sheikh, a member of the Advisory Committee to Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC, said the severe shortage of mental health professionals, inadequate funding and poor access to community-based services were widening the gap between Nigerians who need mental healthcare and those who receive it.
To bridge the gap, Sheikh advocated a decentralised mental health system in which most people receive care at the lowest appropriate level, including self-care, community services and primary healthcare, while patients requiring specialised intervention are referred to higher levels of care.
He noted that although mental health had been recognised as a component of primary healthcare in Nigeria, mental health services remained largely unavailable at the primary healthcare level.
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